Age-old Dread surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across major platforms

One chilling ghostly fear-driven tale from screenwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an forgotten evil when unrelated individuals become proxies in a cursed ritual. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing journey of resilience and primordial malevolence that will resculpt horror this October. Helmed by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and cinematic screenplay follows five lost souls who wake up locked in a cut-off wooden structure under the malignant will of Kyra, a central character possessed by a prehistoric biblical force. Brace yourself to be gripped by a theatrical display that weaves together bodily fright with folklore, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a enduring theme in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is redefined when the fiends no longer arise beyond the self, but rather inside their minds. This embodies the grimmest layer of every character. The result is a bone-chilling identity crisis where the drama becomes a constant face-off between innocence and sin.


In a haunting landscape, five campers find themselves contained under the ominous rule and infestation of a secretive person. As the team becomes paralyzed to reject her command, isolated and targeted by powers ungraspable, they are cornered to endure their raw vulnerabilities while the deathwatch without pause runs out toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust escalates and relationships fracture, coercing each soul to reconsider their essence and the philosophy of independent thought itself. The stakes magnify with every heartbeat, delivering a terror ride that integrates mystical fear with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to tap into pure dread, an threat older than civilization itself, working through emotional vulnerability, and questioning a will that dismantles free will when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra demanded embodying something darker than pain. She is in denial until the curse activates, and that transformation is eerie because it is so private.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for horror fans beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing fans globally can be part of this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its release of trailer #1, which has earned over notable views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, offering the tale to lovers of terror across nations.


Mark your calendar for this haunted descent into darkness. Enter *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to see these evil-rooted truths about our species.


For previews, production news, and social posts from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across media channels and visit the official movie site.





Horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 in focus U.S. Slate blends primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, and IP aftershocks

From life-or-death fear suffused with scriptural legend to brand-name continuations together with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 appears poised to be the most variegated and carefully orchestrated year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. major banners plant stakes across the year using marquee IP, even as digital services stack the fall with fresh voices set against old-world menace. On another front, the independent cohort is fueled by the afterglow of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A fat September–October lane is customary now, distinctly in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are targeted, thus 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige terror resurfaces

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s schedule begins the calendar with a confident swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a clear present-tense world. Directed by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. arriving mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s slate drops the final chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re teams, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retro dread, trauma as text, and eerie supernatural logic. This time, the stakes are raised, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The new chapter enriches the lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, courting teens and the thirty something base. It opens in December, buttoning the final window.

Digital Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece starring Alison Brie and 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 lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend featuring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of 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 is a smart play. No overstuffed canon. No brand fatigue. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Long Running Lines: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trends Worth Watching

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror ascends again
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

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

Season Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The forthcoming 2026 fright slate: installments, universe starters, alongside A busy Calendar geared toward shocks

Dek The emerging terror season loads immediately with a January bottleneck, after that stretches through summer corridors, and straight through the holidays, braiding franchise firepower, untold stories, and shrewd release strategy. Studios with streamers are relying on tight budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and viral-minded pushes that turn these offerings into national conversation.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This space has grown into the most reliable play in studio lineups, a lane that can surge when it connects and still buffer the drag when it doesn’t. After 2023 re-taught buyers that responsibly budgeted chillers can galvanize the discourse, 2024 held pace with visionary-driven titles and sleeper breakouts. The tailwind rolled into the 2025 frame, where revivals and awards-minded projects showed there is space for multiple flavors, from series extensions to director-led originals that travel well. The end result for 2026 is a lineup that appears tightly organized across companies, with planned clusters, a combination of known properties and fresh ideas, and a sharpened priority on big-screen windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium home window and platforms.

Distribution heads claim the genre now works like a utility player on the programming map. The genre can open on a wide range of weekends, yield a clear pitch for marketing and short-form placements, and punch above weight with demo groups that line up on Thursday previews and keep coming through the week two if the release hits. After a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 rhythm demonstrates comfort in that approach. The year rolls out with a crowded January run, then plants flags in spring and early summer for contrast, while holding room for a fall cadence that reaches into All Hallows period and into early November. The grid also illustrates the greater integration of indie arms and subscription services that can build gradually, grow buzz, and go nationwide at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is IP stewardship across shared IP webs and legacy franchises. Studio teams are not just making another next film. They are trying to present brand continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a casting move that connects a latest entry to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the creative leads behind the headline-grabbing originals are celebrating on-set craft, practical effects and vivid settings. That fusion gives 2026 a vital pairing of assurance and newness, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount fires first with two headline projects that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the front, framing it as both a legacy handover and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the tonal posture suggests a heritage-honoring strategy without recycling the last two entries’ sibling arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also resurrects 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 as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will seek broad awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format inviting quick updates to whatever rules the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three unique bets. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is crisp, somber, and easily pitched: a grieving man brings home an machine companion that grows into a fatal companion. The date lines it up at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to renew uncanny-valley stunts and micro spots that interweaves devotion and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a branding reveal to become an event moment closer to the first look. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a Source slot he has worked well before. Peele’s releases are treated as director events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later trailer push that define feel without revealing the concept. The spooky-season slot allows Universal to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate 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 directs, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has demonstrated that a gnarly, physical-effects centered approach can feel top-tier on a lean spend. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror surge that spotlights offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio sets two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, extending a evergreen supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is selling as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both diehards and casuals. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around environmental design, and practical creature work, elements that can drive premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror defined by meticulous craft and dialect, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus Features has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Digital strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s horror titles move to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a pacing that elevates both week-one demand and trial spikes in the downstream. Prime Video stitches together licensed content with global acquisitions and targeted theatrical runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in archive usage, using well-timed internal promotions, fright rows, and handpicked rows to keep attention on overall cume. Netflix keeps flexible about Netflix films and festival pickups, timing horror entries near their drops and positioning as event drops debuts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a hybrid of targeted theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has been willing to board select projects with name filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation intensifies.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 sequence 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 pitch is uncomplicated: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, elevated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the September weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, curating the rollout through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday corridor to broaden. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-first horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception drives. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using precision theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their audience.

Legacy titles versus originals

By number, the 2026 slate skews toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap name recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is diminishing returns. The preferred tactic is to position each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is centering character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is promising a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is familiar enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years navigate here clarify the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not stop a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was potent. In 2024, director-craft horror surged in premium screens. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they alter lens and raise the stakes. 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 two-step approach, with chapters shot back-to-back, enables marketing to connect the chapters through protagonists and motifs and to continue assets in field without hiatuses.

Behind-the-camera this website trends

The craft conversations behind 2026 horror signal a continued move toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that highlights mood and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in craft profiles and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a first look that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for red-band excess, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and gathers shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta pivot that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster aesthetics and world-building, which favor expo activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that underscore pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in big rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid heftier brand moves. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the palette of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Q1 into Q2 load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now backs 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

August and September into October leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited asset reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday card usage.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s artificial companion turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively 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 goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 difficult boss scramble to survive on a desolate island as the control balance upends and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, based on Cronin’s material craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting story that filters its scares through a preteen’s unsteady perspective. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that targets of-the-moment horror beats and true crime preoccupations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing scheduled 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 spreads, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further extends again, with a unlucky family entangled with ancient dread. Rating: TBD. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: forthcoming. Production: ongoing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 primal menace. Rating: TBA. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces define this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-sequenced in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined 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 landings. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine social-ready stingers from test screenings, controlled scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where lean-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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, aural 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.

2026, Ready To Roar

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand heft where it matters, original vision 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, craft precise trailers, protect the mystery, and let the gasps sell the seats.