Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

A unnerving ghostly horror tale from creator / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an forgotten terror when unrelated individuals become conduits in a devilish ordeal. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping episode of continuance and primeval wickedness that will reimagine fear-driven cinema this scare season. Produced by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and moody motion picture follows five teens who wake up stuck in a isolated house under the ominous sway of Kyra, a mysterious girl occupied by a prehistoric religious nightmare. Arm yourself to be captivated by a big screen journey that melds intense horror with spiritual backstory, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a legendary foundation in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is reversed when the dark entities no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather from their core. This suggests the haunting side of the cast. The result is a gripping identity crisis where the intensity becomes a relentless clash between divinity and wickedness.


In a desolate woodland, five youths find themselves cornered under the dark aura and control of a mysterious character. As the group becomes helpless to evade her grasp, exiled and targeted by spirits ungraspable, they are cornered to encounter their inner demons while the hours unforgivingly draws closer toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety deepens and bonds dissolve, urging each protagonist to contemplate their true nature and the foundation of volition itself. The threat escalate with every instant, delivering a terror ride that combines unearthly horror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to uncover instinctual horror, an curse from ancient eras, operating within emotional fractures, and examining a evil that tests the soul when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra asked for exploring something beneath mortal despair. She is oblivious until the demon emerges, and that evolution is terrifying because it is so personal.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be released for on-demand beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring audiences internationally can be part of this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its initial teaser, which has pulled in over six-figure audience.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, exporting the fear to global fright lovers.


Tune in for this mind-warping descent into darkness. Explore *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to face these haunting secrets about inner darkness.


For bonus footage, production news, and alerts from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursed across media channels and visit the official website.





Current horror’s major pivot: 2025 across markets U.S. rollouts melds biblical-possession ideas, independent shockers, stacked beside returning-series thunder

Across fight-to-live nightmare stories drawn from scriptural legend and including legacy revivals alongside focused festival visions, 2025 is shaping up as the richest plus carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. major banners set cornerstones via recognizable brands, concurrently streaming platforms flood the fall with fresh voices as well as primordial unease. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is propelled by the backdraft from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. With Halloween holding the peak, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, yet in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are disciplined, as a result 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal camp fires the first shot with a risk-forward move: a reconceived Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, instead in a current-day frame. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. landing in mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Directed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer wanes, Warner’s slate delivers the closing chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson resumes command, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: old school creep, trauma foregrounded, and eerie supernatural logic. The bar is raised this go, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The next entry deepens the tale, broadens the animatronic terror cast, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It arrives in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror chamber piece pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable led by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Conceived 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. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No overstuffed canon. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, from Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror reemerges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Forward View: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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 will have to fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

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 success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The 2026 scare Year Ahead: brand plays, standalone ideas, plus A brimming Calendar tailored for screams

Dek: The incoming terror cycle crowds from the jump with a January pile-up, after that flows through the summer months, and far into the holiday stretch, mixing name recognition, novel approaches, and tactical alternatives. Distributors with platforms are leaning into tight budgets, theatrical leads, and social-fueled campaigns that turn genre titles into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror marketplace has solidified as the dependable lever in programming grids, a space that can expand when it hits and still buffer the exposure when it misses. After 2023 re-taught decision-makers that low-to-mid budget entries can steer cultural conversation, 2024 held pace with visionary-driven titles and unexpected risers. The tailwind carried into 2025, where re-entries and prestige plays demonstrated there is demand for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to original features that travel well. The upshot for 2026 is a calendar that seems notably aligned across the field, with mapped-out bands, a spread of brand names and original hooks, and a refocused eye on release windows that feed downstream value on paid VOD and subscription services.

Marketers add the horror lane now performs as a schedule utility on the schedule. Horror can premiere on virtually any date, furnish a clean hook for trailers and vertical videos, and outstrip with patrons that arrive on first-look nights and stick through the second frame if the entry connects. Following a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 mapping underscores assurance in that engine. The slate starts with a crowded January schedule, then primes spring and early summer for audience offsets, while reserving space for a late-year stretch that runs into the Halloween corridor and past Halloween. The gridline also spotlights the continuing integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, build word of mouth, and widen at the right moment.

A further high-level trend is brand curation across ongoing universes and classic IP. Major shops are not just turning out another sequel. They are trying to present lore continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that conveys a refreshed voice or a star attachment that reconnects a new installment to a vintage era. At the very same time, the helmers behind the eagerly awaited originals are championing in-camera technique, practical gags and vivid settings. That combination offers the 2026 slate a solid mix of familiarity and unexpected turns, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile releases that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the core, angling it as both a handoff and a DNA-forward character-forward chapter. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture signals a memory-charged framework without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign anchored in classic imagery, initial cast looks, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will pursue general-audience talk through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever rules the social talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated releases. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tidy, soulful, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an algorithmic mate that escalates into a lethal partner. The date locates it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the marketing arm likely to replay uncanny live moments and short reels that threads love and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a proper title to become an headline beat closer to the teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His entries are positioned as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a next wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame lets the studio to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has long shown that a in-your-face, practical-first style can feel premium on a disciplined budget. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror jolt that leans hard into worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio launches two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is describing as a reset 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 directive to serve both loyalists and new audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build promo materials around setting detail, and monster craft, elements that can stoke premium screens and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by careful craft and linguistic texture, this time driven by werewolf stories. The specialty arm has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is supportive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. The Universal horror run head to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ladder that enhances both opening-weekend urgency and sub growth in the later phase. Prime Video interleaves library titles with world buys and short theatrical plays when the data supports it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library engagement, using in-app campaigns, seasonal hubs, and curated rows to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix keeps options open about in-house releases and festival acquisitions, scheduling horror entries tight to release and coalescing around releases with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and prompt platform moves that translates talk to trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to take on select projects with established auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 lane with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is direct: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, 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 flagged a standard theatrical run for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has helped for director-led genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception warrants. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their membership.

Franchises versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate favors the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The standing approach is to brand each entry as a new angle. Paramount is underscoring character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a continental coloration from a rising filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the bundle is grounded enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps contextualize the model. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not block a simultaneous release test from thriving when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror over-performed in premium large format. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they change perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, allows marketing to cross-link entries through personae and themes and to keep assets in-market without doldrums.

Behind-the-camera trends

The production chatter behind 2026 horror hint at a continued emphasis on in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates texture and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and generates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-aware reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature design and production design, which play well in convention floor stunts and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that foreground pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that explode in larger rooms.

How the year maps out

January is stacked. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid marquee brands. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the menu of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Pre-summer months prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The 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 comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

End of summer through fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a slow-reveal plan and limited information drops that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card use.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s virtual companion unfolds into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 severe boss try to survive on a lonely island as the control dynamic flips and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to dread, shaped by Cronin’s hands-on craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 residential haunting chiller that threads the dread through a preteen’s unreliable POV. Rating: forthcoming. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A comic send-up that riffs on current genre trends and true crime fervors. Rating: TBD. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a young family anchored to older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBD. Production: underway. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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 the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces frame this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-slotted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming landings. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, curated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

There is also the slotting calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can control a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 lower and 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 left-field winner 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience useful reference journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sonics, 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.

A Promising 2026

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is recognizable IP where it plays, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.