Antediluvian Dread Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising shocker, arriving October 2025 across top streamers

A blood-curdling mystic suspense film from narrative craftsman / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an mythic fear when outsiders become pawns in a malevolent ceremony. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a intense story of overcoming and mythic evil that will reshape scare flicks this October. Crafted by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and claustrophobic feature follows five figures who emerge locked in a isolated house under the malignant rule of Kyra, a tormented girl dominated by a prehistoric scriptural evil. Be warned to be drawn in by a motion picture spectacle that melds bone-deep fear with mystical narratives, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a legendary fixture in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is inverted when the fiends no longer originate from a different plane, but rather through their own souls. This symbolizes the darkest dimension of each of them. The result is a relentless inner struggle where the narrative becomes a relentless fight between light and darkness.


In a unforgiving wilderness, five figures find themselves marooned under the possessive control and inhabitation of a shadowy being. As the victims becomes unable to deny her command, marooned and pursued by powers inconceivable, they are driven to battle their greatest panics while the deathwatch harrowingly ticks onward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread rises and partnerships crack, compelling each cast member to challenge their true nature and the notion of decision-making itself. The consequences escalate with every beat, delivering a terror ride that marries spiritual fright with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to explore elemental fright, an entity beyond time, manipulating emotional vulnerability, and highlighting a will that redefines identity when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra called for internalizing something beneath mortal despair. She is unaware until the haunting manifests, and that conversion is haunting because it is so emotional.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing viewers worldwide can witness this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original clip, which has gathered over massive response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, presenting the nightmare to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this cinematic trip into the unknown. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to face these ghostly lessons about the human condition.


For cast commentary, production news, and reveals from the story's source, follow @YACMovie across social media and visit our film’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s inflection point: 2025 across markets domestic schedule weaves ancient-possession motifs, independent shockers, stacked beside IP aftershocks

Moving from last-stand terror inspired by primordial scripture all the way to installment follow-ups paired with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is emerging as the most dimensioned as well as calculated campaign year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. top-tier distributors plant stakes across the year with established lines, while digital services crowd the fall with first-wave breakthroughs paired with archetypal fear. In parallel, festival-forward creators is surfing the backdraft of a banner 2024 fest year. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A fat September–October lane is customary now, though in this cycle, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are precise, as a result 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Elevated fear reclaims ground

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s schedule leads off the quarter with a statement play: a refashioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, instead in a current-day frame. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer fades, the Warner Bros. banner launches the swan song from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re engages, and the memorable motifs return: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, plus otherworld rules that chill. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It opens in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Offerings: Economy, maximum dread

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is virtually assured for fall.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, 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.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a clever angle. No swollen lore. No brand fatigue. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy IP: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to 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.

Trends to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine 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
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to 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. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming fright slate: installments, standalone ideas, paired with A brimming Calendar tailored for nightmares

Dek: The fresh terror season loads early with a January wave, following that rolls through June and July, and well into the late-year period, weaving IP strength, untold stories, and strategic offsets. Studios and streamers are committing to mid-range economics, theatrical exclusivity first, and influencer-ready assets that convert the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The genre has solidified as the steady play in annual schedules, a vertical that can grow when it hits and still insulate the exposure when it misses. After 2023 showed decision-makers that efficiently budgeted entries can galvanize mainstream conversation, the following year carried the beat with visionary-driven titles and under-the-radar smashes. The upswing extended into 2025, where legacy revivals and awards-minded projects proved there is an opening for diverse approaches, from ongoing IP entries to director-led originals that scale internationally. The sum for the 2026 slate is a grid that appears tightly organized across the field, with clear date clusters, a combination of marquee IP and untested plays, and a revived commitment on big-screen windows that power the aftermarket on paid VOD and OTT platforms.

Executives say the genre now acts as a utility player on the slate. Horror can debut on numerous frames, yield a simple premise for spots and shorts, and outstrip with moviegoers that turn out on preview nights and hold through the week two if the film works. Emerging from a production delay era, the 2026 mapping shows certainty in that equation. The calendar commences with a front-loaded January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for contrast, while saving space for a fall run that flows toward holiday-adjacent weekends and afterwards. The program also includes the tightening integration of specialty distributors and subscription services that can launch in limited release, fuel WOM, and expand at the inflection point.

Another broad trend is IP cultivation across shared universes and long-running brands. Big banners are not just releasing another entry. They are setting up connection with a specialness, whether that is a art treatment that conveys a new vibe or a cast configuration that ties a fresh chapter to a foundational era. At the very same time, the directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into practical craft, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That combination hands 2026 a vital pairing of known notes and freshness, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount leads early with two spotlight releases that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the spine, angling it as both a passing of the torch and a classic-mode character-first story. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach points to a throwback-friendly framework without retreading the last two entries’ sibling arc. Look for a marketing run fueled by classic imagery, early character teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will chase mass reach through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever dominates genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three clear releases. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, loss-driven, and big-hook: a grieving man implements an synthetic partner that turns into a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to reprise uncanny live moments and micro spots that interlaces love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a public title to become an earned moment closer to the first look. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s work are treated as marquee events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second beat that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-October frame affords Universal to saturate 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has established that a flesh-and-blood, practical-effects forward approach can feel premium on a controlled budget. Look for a splatter summer horror shock that centers global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, continuing a evergreen supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is positioning as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both devotees and newcomers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build promo materials around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can fuel format premiums and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by minute detail and period speech, this time set against lycan legends. Focus Features has already locked the day for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is strong.

Where the platforms fit in

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s releases head to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ladder that boosts both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the later window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed titles with worldwide buys and limited cinema engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library pulls, using featured rows, October hubs, and handpicked rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about internal projects and festival acquisitions, timing horror entries near their drops and framing as events arrivals with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a hybrid of targeted theatrical exposure and quick platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has proven amenable to take on select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc 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 angle is no-nonsense: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, upgraded for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, marshalling the project through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas corridor to open out. That positioning has proved effective for auteur horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using targeted theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their user base.

Brands and originals

By share, the 2026 slate tips toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap brand equity. The risk, as ever, is fatigue. The standing approach is to brand each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a Francophone tone from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the package is familiar enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Rolling three-year comps contextualize the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that honored streaming windows did not hamper a day-date try from delivering when the brand was sticky. In 2024, auteur craft horror popped in premium screens. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reframe POV and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, allows marketing to link the films through relationships and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate hint at a continued preference for material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that emphasizes texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-true language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta reframe that centers an original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster work and world-building, which favor convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel essential. Look for trailers that accent razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in big rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE his comment is here 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 big-brand pushes. 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 legit, but the variety of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Early-year through spring prepare summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now accommodates 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a slow-reveal plan and limited pre-release reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and holiday card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s artificial companion turns into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 abrasive boss battle to survive on a desolate island as the hierarchy tilts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting scenario that routes the horror through a young child’s volatile POV. Rating: not yet rated. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that lampoons in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fixations. Rating: pending. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 spreads, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a another family bound to older hauntings. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A new start designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-core horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: pending. Production: advancing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and primordial menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that slowed or recalendared in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on social-ready stingers from test screenings, precision scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will line up across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, aural design, and camera work 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, Lined Up To Scare

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is name recognition where it counts, distinct vision where it matters, 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, preserve the surprise, and let the screams sell the seats.