Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases primeval horror, a pulse pounding chiller, launching October 2025 across top digital platforms

This spine-tingling paranormal fright fest from cinematographer / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an ancient horror when outsiders become victims in a devilish game. Premiering October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing episode of staying alive and age-old darkness that will reconstruct fear-driven cinema this ghoul season. Visualized by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and atmospheric screenplay follows five figures who find themselves confined in a wilderness-bound cottage under the oppressive sway of Kyra, a central character controlled by a two-thousand-year-old religious nightmare. Arm yourself to be enthralled by a cinematic venture that intertwines intense horror with legendary tales, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a enduring narrative in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is radically shifted when the dark entities no longer arise from a different plane, but rather through their own souls. This illustrates the most sinister dimension of every character. The result is a emotionally raw identity crisis where the intensity becomes a unforgiving tug-of-war between righteousness and malevolence.


In a forsaken wilderness, five souls find themselves trapped under the malicious presence and spiritual invasion of a shadowy spirit. As the ensemble becomes unable to resist her curse, isolated and tracked by creatures unnamable, they are pushed to reckon with their inner demons while the moments unforgivingly edges forward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion builds and ties break, driving each figure to examine their true nature and the foundation of free will itself. The risk intensify with every second, delivering a terror ride that blends demonic fright with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to explore pure dread, an power from prehistory, filtering through our fears, and testing a entity that redefines identity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra called for internalizing something darker than pain. She is unseeing until the demon emerges, and that turn is haunting because it is so close.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for digital release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—allowing households internationally can witness this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its release of trailer #1, which has attracted over a viral response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, making the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Make sure to see this bone-rattling fall into madness. Join *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to witness these unholy truths about free will.


For director insights, special features, and reveals straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across social media and visit the movie’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s major pivot: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts interlaces ancient-possession motifs, festival-born jolts, alongside franchise surges

Moving from survivor-centric dread suffused with ancient scripture through to returning series and cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 appears poised to be the richest plus deliberate year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio powerhouses set cornerstones with known properties, concurrently OTT services stack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs plus old-world menace. In the indie lane, the artisan tier is catching the afterglow from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween stays the prime week, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The fall stretch is the proving field, distinctly in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are calculated, therefore 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal camp fires the first shot with an audacious swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. From director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. targeting mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. From director Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

By late summer, Warner’s pipeline bows the concluding entry from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as 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 sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson returns, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: 70s style chill, trauma as theme, with ghostly inner logic. This run ups the stakes, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The next entry deepens the tale, broadens the animatronic terror cast, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It bows in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Offerings: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also rising is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a calculated bet. No bloated mythology. No IP hangover. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, with Francis Lawrence directing, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

Trend Lines

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

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

Platform originals gain bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forecast: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

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 2026 scare release year: entries, non-franchise titles, And A packed Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek The incoming genre cycle packs right away with a January traffic jam, after that extends through the summer months, and well into the winter holidays, balancing name recognition, new concepts, and smart calendar placement. Studios with streamers are betting on tight budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and social-fueled campaigns that position the slate’s entries into mainstream chatter.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The horror sector has turned into the dependable release in studio calendars, a corner that can break out when it clicks and still mitigate the drawdown when it does not. After the 2023 year reassured strategy teams that disciplined-budget entries can galvanize the discourse, the following year kept energy high with buzzy auteur projects and sleeper breakouts. The trend translated to 2025, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries underscored there is room for multiple flavors, from sequel tracks to original features that resonate abroad. The combined impact for 2026 is a grid that appears tightly organized across the field, with purposeful groupings, a spread of familiar brands and fresh ideas, and a reinvigorated strategy on exclusive windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium video on demand and subscription services.

Planners observe the space now functions as a swing piece on the slate. The genre can roll out on almost any weekend, offer a clear pitch for promo reels and reels, and outstrip with moviegoers that come out on Thursday previews and stick through the sophomore frame if the film lands. Following a production delay era, the 2026 mapping underscores comfort in that approach. The slate launches with a front-loaded January lineup, then turns to spring and early summer for alternate plays, while keeping space for a October build that runs into the fright window and into early November. The layout also includes the stronger partnership of specialty arms and platforms that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and scale up at the strategic time.

Another broad trend is legacy care across linked properties and legacy franchises. Major shops are not just turning out another entry. They are aiming to frame brand continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that indicates a refreshed voice or a lead change that anchors a new installment to a early run. At the alongside this, the helmers behind the headline-grabbing originals are prioritizing hands-on technique, practical effects and distinct locales. That blend gives the 2026 slate a solid mix of home base and newness, which is how the films export.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount leads early with two prominent bets that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the center, marketing it as both a lineage transfer and a heritage-centered character-focused installment. Production is active in Atlanta, and the story approach indicates a fan-service aware approach without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. A campaign is expected built on legacy iconography, early character teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm aimed at late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will double down on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will build four-quadrant chatter through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick updates to whatever owns pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three unique plays. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is simple, tragic, and high-concept: a grieving man adopts an algorithmic mate that escalates into a deadly partner. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to mirror strange in-person beats and snackable content that threads attachment and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a proper title to become an fan moment closer to the debut look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. The filmmaker’s films are branded as marquee events, with a hinting teaser and a second beat that define feel without revealing the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor allows Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has demonstrated that a visceral, on-set effects led method can feel premium on a middle budget. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror shot that embraces international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio mounts two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, carrying a bankable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is positioning as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both longtime followers and general audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build materials around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can increase large-format demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on obsessive craft and historical speech, this time set against lycan legends. Focus Features has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform plans for 2026 run on well-known grooves. The studio’s horror films transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a structure that amplifies both premiere heat and subscriber lifts in the downstream. Prime Video blends licensed films with global acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in archive usage, using featured rows, fright rows, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix originals and festival snaps, scheduling horror entries near their drops and elevating as drops launches with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a staged of precision releases and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform movies has been willing to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation builds.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 runway with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is tight: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, upgraded for modern soundscapes and visuals. 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 wide-to-platform plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has served the company well for craft-driven horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception supports. Do not be surprised by 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 fuel evangelism that fuels their membership.

Legacy titles versus originals

By share, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The question, as ever, is brand erosion. The operating solution is to position each entry as a new angle. Paramount is elevating core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a Francophone tone from a emerging director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and director-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the packaging is grounded enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent comps illuminate the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that held distribution windows did not stop a day-date move from winning when the brand was sticky. In 2024, precision craft horror over-performed in premium large format. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they angle differently and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, permits marketing to interlace chapters through character arcs and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without doldrums.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft rooms behind 2026 horror signal a continued bias toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that emphasizes creep and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in trade spotlights and department features before rolling out a first look that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and drives shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta inflection that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which fit with convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel definitive. Look for trailers that underscore pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

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 quiet contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tonal variety opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Early-year through spring load in summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. 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 moved through premium slots.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony Young & Cursed a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited pre-release reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can increase count 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 rolling out as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to 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 bereaved man’s artificial companion evolves into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 scramble to survive on a uninhabited island as the chain of command tilts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fear, anchored by Cronin’s practical craft imp source and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting tale that filters its scares through a minor’s volatile inner lens. Rating: not yet rated. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-grade and headline-actor led supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that riffs on of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fixations. Rating: TBD. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a unlucky family anchored to past horrors. Rating: not yet rated. 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: forthcoming. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on pure survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

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

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and elemental fear. Rating: TBD. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 and why now

Three execution-level forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that slowed or shifted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming drops. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, clearing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will trade weekends across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. 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 beat and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back 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 bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, aural design, and visual design 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

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shudders sell the seats.