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

A chilling spectral fright fest from author / director Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an ancient entity when foreigners become victims in a malevolent struggle. Premiering October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful tale of staying alive and forgotten curse that will reimagine terror storytelling this fall. Visualized by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and tone-heavy story follows five strangers who find themselves trapped in a wilderness-bound wooden structure under the ominous sway of Kyra, a tormented girl possessed by a prehistoric sacred-era entity. Arm yourself to be captivated by a motion picture ride that blends raw fear with mystical narratives, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a time-honored element in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is reimagined when the demons no longer form from elsewhere, but rather within themselves. This suggests the most sinister layer of all involved. The result is a riveting mental war where the suspense becomes a perpetual tug-of-war between purity and corruption.


In a isolated woodland, five teens find themselves caught under the possessive effect and spiritual invasion of a secretive person. As the youths becomes vulnerable to combat her rule, exiled and hunted by terrors unnamable, they are confronted to wrestle with their worst nightmares while the final hour relentlessly ticks toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety rises and friendships crack, driving each individual to question their true nature and the nature of conscious will itself. The consequences accelerate with every tick, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that marries otherworldly suspense with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to dive into primitive panic, an power from ancient eras, manipulating emotional vulnerability, and testing a will that dismantles free will when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra needed manifesting something more primal than sorrow. She is unseeing until the control shifts, and that turn is emotionally raw because it is so unshielded.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for worldwide release beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that streamers in all regions can get immersed in this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original clip, which has been viewed over strong viewer count.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, taking the terror to horror fans worldwide.


Do not miss this haunted descent into darkness. Watch *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to experience these fearful discoveries about mankind.


For exclusive trailers, special features, and alerts from the cast and crew, follow @YACFilm across entertainment pages and visit the film’s website.





Current horror’s major pivot: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule interlaces Mythic Possession, independent shockers, alongside franchise surges

Beginning with grit-forward survival fare saturated with old testament echoes to legacy revivals paired with pointed art-house angles, 2025 looks like the most variegated together with carefully orchestrated year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios lock in tentpoles using marquee IP, as premium streamers stack the fall with discovery plays and legend-coded dread. Across the art-house lane, the art-house flank is drafting behind the kinetic energy from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. With Halloween holding the peak, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are disciplined, therefore 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Elevated fear reclaims ground

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s pipeline kicks off the frame with a risk-forward move: a refashioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. Slated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. From director Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer wanes, Warner’s pipeline sets loose the finale inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re boards, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retro dread, trauma as text, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This pass pushes higher, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, stretches the animatronic parade, reaching teens and game grownups. It opens in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Plays: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a tight space body horror vignette with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No bloated canon. No sequel clutter. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

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

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

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

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, from Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Signals and Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror returns
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

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

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The upcoming terror slate: next chapters, Originals, alongside A packed Calendar aimed at shocks

Dek: The incoming scare season lines up right away with a January glut, then runs through summer, and far into the winter holidays, combining name recognition, untold stories, and data-minded offsets. Distributors with platforms are leaning into tight budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that turn genre titles into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror sector has established itself as the bankable tool in release strategies, a vertical that can break out when it resonates and still cushion the losses when it doesn’t. After 2023 reminded buyers that lean-budget genre plays can steer the discourse, 2024 extended the rally with buzzy auteur projects and under-the-radar smashes. The tailwind moved into 2025, where reawakened brands and prestige plays demonstrated there is appetite for diverse approaches, from sequel tracks to original one-offs that perform internationally. The sum for 2026 is a lineup that is strikingly coherent across the market, with planned clusters, a equilibrium of household franchises and untested plays, and a reinvigorated commitment on box-office windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital rental and home platforms.

Studio leaders note the category now operates like a utility player on the release plan. The genre can arrive on a wide range of weekends, provide a easy sell for spots and UGC-friendly snippets, and punch above weight with demo groups that turn out on Thursday previews and hold through the next pass if the picture satisfies. Coming out of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 setup signals belief in that equation. The slate rolls out with a thick January block, then plants flags in spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while leaving room for a autumn stretch that pushes into All Hallows period and past the holiday. The program also spotlights the expanded integration of specialized imprints and home platforms that can launch in limited release, grow buzz, and broaden at the optimal moment.

Another broad trend is brand management across brand ecosystems and storied titles. Major shops are not just turning out another continuation. They are moving to present ongoing narrative with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that signals a new tone or a lead change that threads a new installment to a vintage era. At the meanwhile, the creative teams behind the most buzzed-about originals are championing practical craft, on-set effects and concrete locations. That blend yields 2026 a lively combination of home base and newness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline releases that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the lead, positioning the film as both a handoff and a origin-leaning character-centered film. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach signals a heritage-honoring mode without retreading the last two entries’ family thread. Look for a marketing run centered on signature symbols, first images of characters, and a tiered teaser plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens 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 in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will emphasize. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt general-audience talk through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick adjustments to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three separate plays. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, sorrow-tinged, and premise-first: a grieving man activates an AI companion that evolves into a deadly partner. The date positions it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s campaign likely to recreate uncanny-valley stunts and snackable content that interweaves longing and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title reveal to become an fan moment closer to the first trailer. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. The filmmaker’s films are sold as signature events, with a concept-forward tease and a second wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween runway gives Universal room to lead 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a in-your-face, on-set effects led treatment can feel top-tier on a lean spend. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror shot that leans into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio books two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, preserving a steady supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is billing as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 explicit mandate to serve both players and general audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign pieces around canon, and creature design, elements that can drive format premiums and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror built on minute detail and language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The company has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is supportive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. The Universal horror run feed copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a sequence that optimizes both FOMO and platform bumps in the late-window. Prime Video balances outside acquisitions with global pickups and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in deep cuts, using featured rows, Halloween hubs, and curated strips to lengthen the tail on the horror cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival wins, confirming horror entries near their drops and elevating as drops arrivals with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of selective theatrical runs and speedy platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown appetite to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for platform stickiness when the genre conversation builds.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 lane 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 sell is clear: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, reimagined for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late-season weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, useful reference then turning to the December frame to widen. That positioning has helped for craft-driven horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception warrants. Expect 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 mini theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their user base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By share, 2026 favors the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand erosion. The operating solution is to market each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is foregrounding character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French sensibility from a buzzed-about director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and director-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is comforting enough to accelerate early sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps clarify the logic. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not deter a day-date try from performing when the brand was powerful. In 2024, art-forward horror over-performed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reorient and increase ambition. 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 two-film strategy, with chapters shot consecutively, builds a path for marketing to connect the chapters through character arcs and themes and to leave creative active without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror signal a continued lean toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that leans on creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft features before rolling out a first look that withholds plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and produces shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature execution and sets, which work nicely for convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that center fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar cadence

January is packed. 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 atmospheric change-up amid heftier brand moves. The month wraps 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 real, but the mix of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth endures.

February through May set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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 lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a opaque tease strategy and limited disclosures that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s virtual companion shifts into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed 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. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. 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 severe boss work to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power turns and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to terror, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting scenario that routes the horror through a minor’s unsteady internal vantage. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed and name-above-title haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles contemporary horror memes and true crime preoccupations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 breaks out, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family bound to residual nightmares. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in pure survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 era-faithful speech and elemental fear. Rating: TBD. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three hands-on forces frame this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-slotted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and accelerated schedules. 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work repeatable beats from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, creating valuable space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 value-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 harvest those lanes. 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to 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 win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, audio design, 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.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand heft where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.