Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

An terrifying paranormal shockfest from scriptwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an long-buried entity when foreigners become subjects in a cursed maze. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking portrayal of endurance and mythic evil that will reimagine fear-driven cinema this autumn. Realized by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and tone-heavy cinema piece follows five young adults who come to imprisoned in a isolated shack under the oppressive grip of Kyra, a female presence haunted by a timeless biblical force. Steel yourself to be absorbed by a screen-based journey that merges intense horror with arcane tradition, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a mainstay element in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is reimagined when the malevolences no longer come externally, but rather through their own souls. This represents the most terrifying dimension of each of them. The result is a psychologically brutal inner struggle where the emotions becomes a perpetual struggle between innocence and sin.


In a unforgiving woodland, five adults find themselves imprisoned under the sinister influence and possession of a shadowy person. As the youths becomes unable to escape her curse, stranded and attacked by spirits indescribable, they are compelled to endure their emotional phantoms while the clock brutally ticks toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread deepens and teams crack, compelling each soul to reconsider their essence and the idea of self-determination itself. The hazard mount with every minute, delivering a terror ride that intertwines otherworldly suspense with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to draw upon raw dread, an entity from ancient eras, working through our weaknesses, and dealing with a spirit that redefines identity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra required summoning something past sanity. She is clueless until the invasion happens, and that change is emotionally raw because it is so intimate.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering streamers from coast to coast can survive this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first trailer, which has been viewed over notable views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, presenting the nightmare to lovers of terror across nations.


Make sure to see this mind-warping exploration of dread. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to witness these ghostly lessons about the soul.


For teasers, making-of footage, and press updates via the production team, follow @YACFilm across your favorite networks and visit the movie portal.





Current horror’s watershed moment: 2025 for genre fans U.S. Slate melds old-world possession, festival-born jolts, in parallel with series shake-ups

Kicking off with pressure-cooker survival tales drawn from biblical myth all the way to canon extensions set beside pointed art-house angles, 2025 appears poised to be the most stratified combined with strategic year in years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. top-tier distributors lay down anchors through proven series, in parallel subscription platforms flood the fall with debut heat paired with scriptural shivers. On the independent axis, the artisan tier is buoyed by the backdraft from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween stays the prime week, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, but this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are precise, and 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: High-craft horror returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s slate fires the first shot with a marquee bet: a refashioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, inside today’s landscape. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. dated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Directed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer fades, the WB camp releases the last chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. 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: retro dread, trauma as narrative engine, along with eerie supernatural rules. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, builds out the animatronic fear crew, bridging teens and legacy players. It opens in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Offerings: Economy, maximum dread

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror chamber piece starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative featuring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No canon weight. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Franchise Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Emerging Currents

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror resurges
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The filler era wanes for platform horror. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forward View: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

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 such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The approaching fear calendar year ahead: entries, filmmaker-first projects, alongside A stacked Calendar calibrated for jolts

Dek: The current terror calendar loads at the outset with a January logjam, thereafter flows through the mid-year, and carrying into the December corridor, fusing franchise firepower, creative pitches, and data-minded counter-scheduling. The major players are focusing on right-sized spends, theatrical leads, and viral-minded pushes that turn these releases into national conversation.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The field has proven to be the steady play in annual schedules, a segment that can expand when it hits and still safeguard the drawdown when it misses. After the 2023 year re-taught executives that cost-conscious horror vehicles can command pop culture, 2024 continued the surge with visionary-driven titles and surprise hits. The momentum extended into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and festival-grade titles made clear there is demand for several lanes, from brand follow-ups to non-IP projects that perform internationally. The aggregate for 2026 is a calendar that seems notably aligned across distributors, with intentional bunching, a mix of established brands and novel angles, and a revived focus on theater exclusivity that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and SVOD.

Schedulers say the category now functions as a swing piece on the schedule. The genre can arrive on numerous frames, supply a quick sell for teasers and vertical videos, and over-index with patrons that come out on preview nights and hold through the follow-up frame if the title fires. Post a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 layout telegraphs belief in that logic. The calendar opens with a loaded January lineup, then uses spring and early summer for contrast, while carving room for a autumn push that carries into late October and into early November. The arrangement also includes the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and streamers that can grow from platform, create conversation, and widen at the strategic time.

A second macro trend is series management across connected story worlds and established properties. Studios are not just producing another entry. They are trying to present continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title treatment that telegraphs a recalibrated tone or a lead change that reconnects a latest entry to a heyday. At the concurrently, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are embracing tactile craft, physical gags and specific settings. That alloy hands 2026 a lively combination of assurance and invention, which is how the films export.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount sets the tone early with two centerpiece pushes that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the front, positioning the film as both a handoff and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the directional approach announces a legacy-leaning strategy without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Watch for a push driven by signature symbols, character previews, and a tease cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will build general-audience talk through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format enabling quick redirects to whatever dominates horror talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct releases. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, sorrow-tinged, and high-concept: a grieving man brings home an AI companion that mutates into a fatal companion. The date sets it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s campaign likely to echo eerie street stunts and short-form creative that blurs devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a final title to become an attention spike closer to the initial tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. The filmmaker’s films are treated as marquee events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second beat that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The pre-Halloween slot opens a lane to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, have a peek at this web-site works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has proven that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy approach can feel top-tier on a controlled budget. Expect a viscera-heavy summer horror shock that maximizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio sets two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, preserving a evergreen supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is presenting as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both diehards and casuals. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign creative around lore, and creature builds, elements that can boost IMAX and PLF uptake and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by textural authenticity and language, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus’s team has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on tested paths. The studio’s horror films feed copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a stair-step that fortifies both week-one demand and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video stitches together third-party pickups with world buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on overall cume. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix originals and festival deals, locking in horror entries on shorter runways and elevating as drops drops with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a paired of targeted theatrical exposure and quick platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown a willingness to board select projects with acclaimed directors or star-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation intensifies.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 pipeline 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 promise is straightforward: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, recalibrated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the October weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the December frame to widen. That positioning has been successful for craft-driven horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception justifies. Keep an eye on 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 in concert, using precision theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their user base.

Series vs standalone

By volume, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate brand equity. The question, as ever, is overexposure. The operating solution is to sell each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is spotlighting core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a Francophone tone from a new voice. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the assembly is anchored enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Three-year comps clarify the method. In 2023, a exclusive window model that respected streaming windows did not block a parallel release from succeeding when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror over-performed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, allows marketing to cross-link entries through character arcs and themes and to hold creative in the market without dead zones.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The shop talk behind this year’s genre hint at a continued move toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration his comment is here of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that leans on creep and texture rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft features before rolling out a mood teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-aware reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature design and production design, which fit with convention floor stunts and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel definitive. Look for trailers that highlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January have a peek here is packed. 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 big-brand pushes. The month caps 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 legit, but the spread of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late Q1 and spring prime the summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with heritage buzz. 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. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited asset reveals that put concept first.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card use.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s artificial companion turns into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 difficult boss fight to survive on a rugged island as the hierarchy inverts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

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 renewed take that returns the monster to nightmare, rooted in Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 household haunting scenario that leverages the fright of a child’s uncertain POV. Rating: forthcoming. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A genre lampoon that lampoons contemporary horror memes and true-crime crazes. Rating: TBD. Production: shoot planned 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 bursts, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household tethered to ancient dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-driven horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: to be announced. Production: proceeding. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 elemental menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 lands now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces organize this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or recalendared in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more strict 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 premieres. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Calendar math also matters. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will compete 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 pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where value-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 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, audio design, and visuals 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

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand gravity where needed, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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, cut crisp trailers, guard the secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.