Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient terror, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across major platforms

One chilling metaphysical horror tale from writer / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an age-old evil when drifters become victims in a devilish struggle. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing tale of struggle and age-old darkness that will remodel the horror genre this harvest season. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and claustrophobic film follows five lost souls who find themselves stuck in a unreachable house under the aggressive control of Kyra, a tormented girl claimed by a 2,000-year-old biblical force. Anticipate to be captivated by a immersive journey that unites deep-seated panic with legendary tales, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a long-standing element in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is subverted when the presences no longer manifest externally, but rather from deep inside. This illustrates the grimmest part of all involved. The result is a bone-chilling cognitive warzone where the suspense becomes a brutal face-off between virtue and vice.


In a remote wild, five campers find themselves stuck under the malevolent effect and infestation of a shadowy woman. As the youths becomes vulnerable to combat her power, isolated and tormented by unknowns unimaginable, they are driven to confront their soulful dreads while the final hour unceasingly ticks onward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear rises and teams shatter, requiring each participant to reflect on their values and the nature of self-determination itself. The consequences climb with every beat, delivering a fear-soaked story that integrates otherworldly suspense with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to evoke elemental fright, an threat from prehistory, emerging via emotional vulnerability, and questioning a will that threatens selfhood when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra asked for exploring something beyond human emotion. She is oblivious until the entity awakens, and that transition is harrowing because it is so private.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing households worldwide can get immersed in this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its release of trailer #1, which has received over a hundred thousand impressions.


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


Don’t miss this mind-warping descent into darkness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to witness these dark realities about the psyche.


For bonus footage, director cuts, and reveals via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit our film’s homepage.





Today’s horror sea change: 2025 in focus U.S. Slate blends old-world possession, signature indie scares, plus franchise surges

Moving from survival horror steeped in near-Eastern lore and including brand-name continuations plus keen independent perspectives, 2025 is lining up as the most complex and calculated campaign year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors set cornerstones via recognizable brands, at the same time SVOD players flood the fall with new voices alongside primordial unease. On the festival side, the independent cohort is surfing the uplift from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and now, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are targeted, so 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: The Return of Prestige Fear

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline sets the tone with a confident swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Booked into 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 port tuned to austere horror. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside 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. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

When summer fades, the WB camp delivers the closing chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Despite a known recipe, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the memorable motifs return: throwback unease, trauma driven plotting, and a cold supernatural calculus. The stakes escalate here, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The new chapter enriches the lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It bows in December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Also rising is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed 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 chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. That is a savvy move. No bloated canon. No brand fatigue. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

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 opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy IP: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, under Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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

Dials to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror returns
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The next fear release year: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, in tandem with A brimming Calendar tailored for frights

Dek The incoming horror season loads immediately with a January bottleneck, after that extends through the summer months, and carrying into the festive period, combining brand heft, novel approaches, and smart alternatives. Studios and streamers are doubling down on smart costs, box-office-first windows, and social-driven marketing that pivot genre titles into mainstream chatter.

How the genre looks for 2026

The field has established itself as the dependable option in studio lineups, a pillar that can lift when it catches and still hedge the drawdown when it fails to connect. After 2023 showed decision-makers that disciplined-budget chillers can lead the national conversation, 2024 held pace with director-led heat and under-the-radar smashes. The tailwind flowed into 2025, where reawakened brands and prestige plays demonstrated there is an opening for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to standalone ideas that export nicely. The takeaway for 2026 is a schedule that is strikingly coherent across companies, with clear date clusters, a equilibrium of recognizable IP and new packages, and a recommitted stance on exhibition windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium video on demand and OTT platforms.

Insiders argue the category now acts as a fill-in ace on the grid. Horror can kick off on open real estate, deliver a grabby hook for promo reels and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with patrons that turn out on early shows and keep coming through the second weekend if the title hits. After a work stoppage lag, the 2026 mapping demonstrates conviction in that approach. The year rolls out with a weighty January run, then targets spring into early summer for balance, while reserving space for a fall corridor that runs into holiday-adjacent weekends and beyond. The layout also includes the tightening integration of specialty distributors and OTT outlets that can stage a platform run, ignite recommendations, and grow at the timely point.

A second macro trend is series management across connected story worlds and heritage properties. Major shops are not just greenlighting another chapter. They are working to present story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a re-angled tone or a cast configuration that connects a next entry to a early run. At the alongside this, the auteurs behind the most anticipated originals are championing real-world builds, practical gags and concrete locations. That blend produces 2026 a vital pairing of brand comfort and invention, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount defines the early cadence with two front-of-slate bets that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the focus, presenting it as both a passing of the torch and a origin-leaning character piece. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a memory-charged campaign without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. A campaign is expected rooted in legacy iconography, first images of characters, and a tease cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will double down on. As a summer alternative, this one will seek general-audience talk through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format allowing quick turns to whatever tops the discourse that spring.

Universal has three discrete projects. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, soulful, and premise-first: a grieving man implements an algorithmic mate that turns into a deadly partner. The date puts it at the front of a stacked January, with the marketing arm likely to recreate uncanny-valley stunts and short-form creative that threads longing and foreboding.

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

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are sold as director events, with a hinting teaser and a second wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor lets the studio to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July this page 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has proven that a blood-soaked, makeup-driven execution can feel elevated on a controlled budget. Expect a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio rolls out two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, sustaining a trusty supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is framing as a clean-slate approach 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 well-defined brief to serve both players and curious audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build artifacts around environmental design, and creature builds, elements that can amplify premium format interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in meticulous craft and period speech, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus Features has already locked the day for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is positive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on proven patterns. The studio’s horror films transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a structure that optimizes both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video pairs licensed films with worldwide buys and short theatrical plays when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in back-catalog play, using seasonal hubs, seasonal hubs, and programmed rows to sustain interest on overall cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival buys, confirming horror entries near their drops and framing as events debuts with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a one-two of precision releases and accelerated platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with name filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 lane with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is uncomplicated: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, upgraded for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late-season weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday corridor to go wider. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-driven genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using select theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their audience.

Brands and originals

By weight, 2026 is weighted toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit franchise value. The caveat, as ever, is overexposure. The practical approach is to position each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is emphasizing character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a buzzed-about director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the configuration is familiar enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years help explain the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not deter a dual release from performing when the brand was powerful. In 2024, auteur craft horror rose in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they pivot perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, lets marketing to thread films through cast and motif and to continue assets in field without long gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft conversations behind the year’s horror hint at a continued shift toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta recalibration that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster aesthetics and world-building, which match well with con floor moments and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel necessary. Look for trailers that emphasize pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that explode in larger rooms.

How the year maps out

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid larger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the tonal variety creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth spreads.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited pre-release reveals that trade in concept over detail.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can win the holiday when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s machine mate mutates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: mood-led 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 scramble to survive on a lonely island as the power balance of power turns and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to dread, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting piece that refracts terror through a young child’s flickering perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: finished. Positioning: major-studio and name-above-title ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A satirical comeback that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime obsessions. Rating: to be announced. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 flares, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new household snared by past horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-first horror over action spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: pending. Production: continuing. 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 time-true diction and primal menace. Rating: TBD. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why this year, why now

Three workable forces drive this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shuffled in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate repeatable beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Calendar math also matters. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will jostle 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 sweet spot. 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 disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, optimized footprints, 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 materiality, sound, and image-making 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

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand gravity where needed, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the chills sell the seats.