Age-old Dread surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

A eerie ghostly horror tale from narrative craftsman / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an prehistoric dread when passersby become tools in a cursed ritual. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving episode of resistance and archaic horror that will transform the horror genre this autumn. Crafted by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and atmospheric feature follows five people who come to ensnared in a secluded dwelling under the malevolent grip of Kyra, a cursed figure possessed by a 2,000-year-old Old Testament spirit. Steel yourself to be immersed by a motion picture display that unites visceral dread with timeless legends, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a legendary narrative in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is flipped when the entities no longer develop from beyond, but rather internally. This mirrors the darkest shade of every character. The result is a bone-chilling identity crisis where the drama becomes a brutal struggle between heaven and hell.


In a bleak outland, five friends find themselves isolated under the ominous sway and curse of a secretive person. As the team becomes paralyzed to reject her control, disconnected and hunted by spirits beyond reason, they are driven to confront their greatest panics while the timeline ruthlessly runs out toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease swells and teams implode, requiring each character to evaluate their core and the integrity of independent thought itself. The hazard rise with every passing moment, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that fuses otherworldly suspense with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to dig into primal fear, an evil before modern man, channeling itself through fragile psyche, and testing a power that threatens selfhood when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra needed manifesting something more primal than sorrow. She is insensitive until the takeover begins, and that flip is eerie because it is so raw.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be released for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure streamers everywhere can experience this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original clip, which has racked up over 100K plays.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, bringing the film to viewers around the world.


Be sure to catch this life-altering journey into fear. Enter *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to experience these fearful discoveries about mankind.


For bonus footage, behind-the-scenes content, and reveals from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit the official movie site.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: the 2025 season domestic schedule melds archetypal-possession themes, indie terrors, in parallel with legacy-brand quakes

Across survival horror inspired by old testament echoes and stretching into canon extensions plus incisive indie visions, 2025 stands to become the richest as well as blueprinted year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. leading studios lay down anchors via recognizable brands, concurrently digital services prime the fall with fresh voices paired with mythic dread. On the independent axis, the artisan tier is drafting behind the tailwinds from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A fat September–October lane is customary now, notably this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are targeted, thus 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: The Return of Prestige Fear

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s slate opens the year with an audacious swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. With Leigh Whannell at the helm featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. targeting mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Directed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer winds down, Warner’s pipeline rolls out the capstone from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson returns, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma as narrative engine, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This pass pushes higher, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The return delves further into myth, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, courting teens and the thirty something base. It bows in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Digital Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a close quarters body horror study featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend featuring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. That is a savvy move. No heavy handed lore. No sequel clutter. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

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

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

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 earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, led 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.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trend Lines

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

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. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The approaching terror slate: installments, filmmaker-first projects, plus A brimming Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek The upcoming scare year crowds right away with a January pile-up, thereafter unfolds through summer corridors, and far into the holiday stretch, mixing marquee clout, new concepts, and well-timed counterprogramming. The major players are focusing on lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and social-driven marketing that position these pictures into water-cooler talk.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The field has emerged as the consistent tool in release plans, a category that can accelerate when it connects and still protect the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 signaled to strategy teams that lean-budget shockers can dominate social chatter, 2024 kept energy high with signature-voice projects and quiet over-performers. The run moved into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and filmmaker-prestige bets demonstrated there is a lane for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to director-led originals that perform internationally. The end result for the 2026 slate is a calendar that is strikingly coherent across studios, with planned clusters, a mix of legacy names and new pitches, and a recommitted eye on release windows that drive downstream revenue on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Insiders argue the genre now slots in as a schedule utility on the rollout map. Horror can open on almost any weekend, generate a grabby hook for teasers and short-form placements, and over-index with ticket buyers that line up on preview nights and stay strong through the follow-up frame if the movie satisfies. Emerging from a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 configuration underscores belief in that setup. The year commences with a loaded January block, then leans on spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while reserving space for a October build that reaches into the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The program also underscores the continuing integration of indie arms and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

An added macro current is legacy care across linked properties and heritage properties. The companies are not just greenlighting another follow-up. They are trying to present lore continuity with a occasion, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a new vibe or a casting move that binds a upcoming film to a original cycle. At the very same time, the visionaries behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into real-world builds, practical gags and place-driven backdrops. That combination hands 2026 a vital pairing of assurance and novelty, which is why the genre exports well.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount leads early with two front-of-slate releases that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the center, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward character-focused installment. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach hints at a roots-evoking treatment without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push driven by heritage visuals, first-look character reveals, and a staggered trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects 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 as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will feature. As a summer relief option, this one will generate wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format fitting quick redirects to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, heartbroken, and concept-forward: a grieving man brings home an synthetic partner that turns into a dangerous lover. The date sets it at the front of a stacked January, with the studio’s marketing likely to mirror creepy live activations and micro spots that interlaces affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele projects are positioned as director events, with a opaque teaser and a later creative that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has established that a gritty, practical-effects forward treatment can feel top-tier on a mid-range budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror rush that pushes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, keeping a bankable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is positioning as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build assets around narrative world, and monster aesthetics, elements that can accelerate premium booking interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in textural authenticity and archaic language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus Features has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform windowing in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a structure that optimizes both week-one demand and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video balances licensed films with global acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data supports it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, holiday hubs, and curated rows to sustain interest on lifetime take. Netflix plays opportunist about internal projects and festival pickups, locking in horror entries closer to launch and positioning as event drops go-lives with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a laddered of focused cinema runs and rapid platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will prove important 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+ assesses case by case horror on a curated basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for sustained usage when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is simple: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated 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 indicated a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, managing the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has proved effective for arthouse horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception supports. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using mini theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their user base.

Balance of brands and originals

By tilt, 2026 leans toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate fan equity. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to pitch each entry as a new angle. Paramount is spotlighting character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a Francophone tone from a ascendant talent. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the cast-creatives package is familiar enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps make sense of the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that observed windows did not prevent a parallel release from delivering when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reorient and stretch the story. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to relate entries through protagonists and motifs and to continue assets in field without long gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The production chatter behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued shift toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that centers aura and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gross-out texture, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-referential reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which lend themselves to fan conventions and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that highlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in premium houses.

Calendar cadence

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

February through May load in summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder season window have a peek at these guys that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a peekaboo tease plan and limited asset reveals that elevate concept over story.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s virtual companion evolves into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: atmospheric 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 unyielding boss battle to survive on a lonely island as the power dynamic inverts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

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 contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to dread, built on Cronin’s material craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. 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 intimate haunting piece that leverages the unease of a child’s inconsistent perspective. Rating: rating pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-built and star-led spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A satire sequel that needles today’s horror trends and true-crime manias. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new family anchored to older hauntings. Rating: undetermined. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A fresh restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over action fireworks. Rating: not yet rated. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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-accurate language and elemental dread. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026 lands now

Three pragmatic forces frame this lineup. First, production that stalled or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and compressed 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 beaten straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage meme-ready beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, offering breathing room for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will line up across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience More about the author for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, smart allocations, 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 grain, sound field, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is name recognition where it counts, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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, produce clean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shocks sell the seats.