Mythic Evil Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising supernatural thriller, launching Oct 2025 on major platforms

A hair-raising occult terror film from scriptwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an ancient force when drifters become subjects in a supernatural trial. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing tale of continuance and ancient evil that will remodel fear-driven cinema this spooky time. Realized by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and moody screenplay follows five people who are stirred locked in a secluded cottage under the dark command of Kyra, a young woman possessed by a millennia-old Old Testament spirit. Be warned to be immersed by a narrative journey that integrates bodily fright with ancestral stories, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a legendary trope in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is twisted when the fiends no longer emerge outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This marks the most primal shade of the victims. The result is a edge-of-seat psychological battle where the tension becomes a relentless face-off between moral forces.


In a haunting forest, five souls find themselves caught under the possessive dominion and control of a elusive figure. As the cast becomes incapacitated to evade her command, cut off and chased by spirits impossible to understand, they are made to stand before their emotional phantoms while the countdown without pause pushes forward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia surges and links shatter, requiring each protagonist to scrutinize their values and the concept of freedom of choice itself. The threat escalate with every breath, delivering a terror ride that connects ghostly evil with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to uncover basic terror, an malevolence born of forgotten ages, working through emotional vulnerability, and dealing with a power that tests the soul when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra called for internalizing something beyond human emotion. She is oblivious until the control shifts, and that turn is shocking because it is so emotional.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be available for digital release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure users internationally can enjoy this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its intro video, which has been viewed over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, offering the tale to a worldwide audience.


Experience this bone-rattling journey into fear. Confront *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to experience these evil-rooted truths about our species.


For bonus footage, filmmaker commentary, and social posts from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit the official website.





Modern horror’s tipping point: 2025 across markets U.S. lineup braids together myth-forward possession, underground frights, stacked beside legacy-brand quakes

Across pressure-cooker survival tales suffused with biblical myth as well as IP renewals in concert with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is tracking to be the most stratified and precision-timed year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio powerhouses bookend the months via recognizable brands, in parallel streaming platforms front-load the fall with debut heat as well as primordial unease. At the same time, the independent cohort is riding the carry of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween stays the prime week, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, yet in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, so 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Elevated fear reclaims ground

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s schedule leads off the quarter with a bold swing: a modernized Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, within a sleek contemporary canvas. 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. timed for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer fades, Warner’s slate bows the concluding entry inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re engages, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma in the foreground, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, courting teens and the thirty something base. It posts in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Plays: No Budget, No Problem

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a sealed box body horror arc fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is destined for a fall landing.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of 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.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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. That is a savvy move. No swollen lore. No series drag. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. 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. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

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

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Dials to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror returns
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

What’s Next: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The next spook slate: Sequels, non-franchise titles, and also A loaded Calendar designed for chills

Dek The current horror year clusters immediately with a January traffic jam, from there stretches through midyear, and continuing into the holiday stretch, blending brand equity, inventive spins, and strategic counterplay. Major distributors and platforms are doubling down on lean spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and platform-native promos that elevate genre releases into cross-demo moments.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The field has turned into the steady counterweight in studio calendars, a category that can surge when it breaks through and still insulate the drag when it misses. After the 2023 year proved to strategy teams that efficiently budgeted shockers can steer audience talk, the following year held pace with buzzy auteur projects and word-of-mouth wins. The trend rolled into 2025, where reawakened brands and prestige plays demonstrated there is appetite for many shades, from sequel tracks to standalone ideas that play globally. The sum for 2026 is a lineup that reads highly synchronized across the field, with clear date clusters, a balance of brand names and new pitches, and a tightened commitment on box-office windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital rental and home platforms.

Schedulers say the genre now performs as a flex slot on the calendar. Horror can open on numerous frames, deliver a quick sell for creative and short-form placements, and lead with viewers that respond on advance nights and maintain momentum through the next weekend if the entry works. Exiting a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 cadence exhibits conviction in that engine. The calendar launches with a loaded January run, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while reserving space for a autumn stretch that extends to spooky season and into November. The arrangement also illustrates the continuing integration of specialty distributors and streamers that can platform a title, ignite recommendations, and go nationwide at the precise moment.

A further high-level trend is franchise tending across unified worlds and heritage properties. Distribution groups are not just producing another sequel. They are moving to present lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a new vibe or a casting pivot that links a next entry to a classic era. At the alongside this, the visionaries behind the top original plays are returning to practical craft, physical gags and vivid settings. That interplay gives 2026 a confident blend of assurance and freshness, which is how the films export.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount plants an early flag with two marquee bets that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the spine, angling it as both a handoff and a rootsy relationship-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the story approach telegraphs a fan-service aware framework without repeating the last two entries’ sibling arc. Plan for a rollout built on franchise iconography, early character teases, and a staggered trailer plan timed to 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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will lean on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will seek four-quadrant chatter through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick updates to whatever defines the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three differentiated releases. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is efficient, loss-driven, and big-hook: a grieving man brings home an digital partner that evolves into a killer companion. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on odd public stunts and micro spots that interlaces love and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored 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 creates space for a official title to become an event moment closer to the initial tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are sold as signature events, with a minimalist tease and a next wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway opens a lane to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has shown that a gnarly, in-camera leaning mix can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a gore-forward 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 impressively deep. The studio deploys two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand on the grid 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 traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both franchise faithful and novices. The fall slot offers Sony space to build promo materials around mythos, and creature work, elements that can lift IMAX and PLF uptake and community activity.

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 characterized by careful craft and archaic language, this time set against lycan legends. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a structure that optimizes both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix third-party pickups with cross-border buys and small theatrical windows when the data signals it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using seasonal hubs, seasonal hubs, and programmed rows to stretch the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival grabs, scheduling horror entries near their drops and eventizing launches with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a tiered of targeted cinema placements and short jumps to platform that drives paid trials from buzz. That will matter 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 situational basis. The platform has proven amenable to take on select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track 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 appeal is clean: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, 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 positioned a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then using the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has proved effective for elevated genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception encourages. Look 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 small theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their audience.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, 2026 is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on marquee value. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The near-term solution is to market each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is leading with relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a continental coloration from a rising filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the configuration is familiar enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns outline the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not preclude a hybrid test from working when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they alter lens and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, lets marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to keep assets in-market without lulls.

How the look and feel evolve

The director conversations behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued bias toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that highlights tone and tension rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft coverage before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and sparks shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that centers an original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature execution and sets, which work nicely for expo activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that underscore disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that sing on PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. 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 moody palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the variety of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Post-January through spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now backs 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a transitional slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a opaque tease strategy and limited asset reveals that center concept over reveals.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card use.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genes. 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 loss-struck man’s AI companion becomes something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 fight to survive on a rugged island as the power balance of power swivels and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 retelling that returns the monster to terror, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 domestic haunting story that toys with the dread of a child’s uncertain senses. Rating: TBA. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-grade and headline-actor led haunting 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 spoof revival that lampoons today’s horror trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new clan lashed to past horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survivalist horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: pending. Production: active. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 ancient menace. Rating: TBA. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026 and why now

Three operational forces define this lineup. First, production that eased or re-slotted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and accelerated 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming drops. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate bite-size scare clips from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, clearing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

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 deep PLF penetration 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 dark-horse hunt 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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, this content especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, soundcraft, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is IP strength where it matters, auteur intent 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shudders sell the seats.