Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes ancient dread, a bone chilling horror feature, rolling out Oct 2025 on premium platforms

One terrifying paranormal nightmare movie from cinematographer / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an mythic force when outsiders become conduits in a devilish ordeal. Dropping on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a intense depiction of resistance and old world terror that will redefine genre cinema this scare season. Brought to life by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and gothic screenplay follows five strangers who regain consciousness locked in a wilderness-bound wooden structure under the oppressive dominion of Kyra, a mysterious girl claimed by a 2,000-year-old scriptural evil. Be prepared to be shaken by a filmic experience that intertwines raw fear with folklore, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a classic motif in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is flipped when the fiends no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather deep within. This suggests the haunting layer of the cast. The result is a relentless psychological battle where the tension becomes a relentless contest between heaven and hell.


In a abandoned terrain, five teens find themselves caught under the malevolent effect and domination of a unknown apparition. As the team becomes helpless to escape her control, exiled and chased by unknowns impossible to understand, they are pushed to stand before their deepest fears while the countdown without pause ticks onward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust amplifies and relationships crack, demanding each soul to scrutinize their essence and the nature of independent thought itself. The tension climb with every instant, delivering a paranormal ride that integrates demonic fright with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to extract primitive panic, an threat older than civilization itself, filtering through inner turmoil, and dealing with a spirit that peels away humanity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra required summoning something unfamiliar to reason. She is insensitive until the possession kicks in, and that pivot is terrifying because it is so unshielded.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing watchers everywhere can watch this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its initial teaser, which has pulled in over a viral response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, bringing the film to international horror buffs.


Make sure to see this gripping ride through nightmares. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to uncover these dark realities about the soul.


For behind-the-scenes access, set experiences, and announcements from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across online outlets and visit the film’s website.





The horror genre’s pivotal crossroads: the 2025 season domestic schedule fuses myth-forward possession, independent shockers, plus Franchise Rumbles

Running from survival horror saturated with scriptural legend through to franchise returns and incisive indie visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated along with blueprinted year of the last decade.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. leading studios lay down anchors using marquee IP, simultaneously platform operators front-load the fall with first-wave breakthroughs set against archetypal fear. On another front, indie storytellers is buoyed by the tailwinds from a record 2024 festival run. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, yet in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are precise, so 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

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

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal Pictures lights the fuse with a marquee bet: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a clear present-tense world. Guided by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. landing in 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 adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Eli Craig directs fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer eases, the Warner lot drops the final chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson is back, and the memorable motifs return: old school creep, trauma foregrounded, and a cold supernatural calculus. This run ups the stakes, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The next entry deepens the tale, builds out the animatronic fear crew, speaking to teens and older millennials. It drops in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Firsts: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a tight space body horror vignette with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga featuring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: 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

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, 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 horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. That is a savvy move. No heavy handed lore. No canon weight. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

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

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Brands: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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

Trend Lines

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror returns
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Season Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The new chiller lineup: brand plays, Originals, in tandem with A busy Calendar aimed at frights

Dek The new genre season lines up from the jump with a January wave, thereafter stretches through June and July, and pushing into the holiday frame, balancing brand heft, fresh ideas, and shrewd counterplay. Studios and streamers are betting on mid-range economics, theatrical-first rollouts, and shareable marketing that convert horror entries into cross-demo moments.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the consistent swing in studio lineups, a genre that can grow when it resonates and still mitigate the liability when it under-delivers. After 2023 showed executives that modestly budgeted horror vehicles can galvanize social chatter, 2024 sustained momentum with director-led heat and word-of-mouth wins. The carry flowed into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers proved there is a market for a spectrum, from legacy continuations to non-IP projects that travel well. The sum for the 2026 slate is a calendar that presents tight coordination across studios, with planned clusters, a mix of recognizable IP and fresh ideas, and a refocused commitment on big-screen windows that power the aftermarket on premium rental and home streaming.

Insiders argue the horror lane now performs as a swing piece on the distribution slate. Horror can arrive on nearly any frame, generate a clean hook for spots and short-form placements, and outperform with crowds that come out on Thursday previews and keep coming through the next weekend if the entry pays off. Exiting a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 mapping exhibits trust in that setup. The slate starts with a weighty January run, then leans on spring and early summer for audience offsets, while carving room for a fall cadence that carries into spooky season and past Halloween. The schedule also spotlights the increasing integration of specialized labels and streaming partners that can nurture a platform play, grow buzz, and move wide at the proper time.

A parallel macro theme is IP cultivation across shared IP webs and legacy franchises. The studios are not just rolling another sequel. They are setting up story carry-over with a specialness, whether that is a brandmark that indicates a re-angled tone or a casting move that threads a incoming chapter to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the visionaries behind the top original plays are returning to real-world builds, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That pairing produces 2026 a confident blend of brand comfort and freshness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

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

Paramount plants an early flag with two big-ticket moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the lead, angling it as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. Production is active in Atlanta, and the authorial approach suggests a classic-referencing framework without rehashing the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout rooted in iconic art, character-first teases, and a two-beat trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

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 in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will feature. As a non-tentpole news summer option, this one will seek broad awareness through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick updates to whatever tops the social talk that spring.

Universal has three separate releases. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is elegant, soulful, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that mutates into a lethal partner. The date slots it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s marketing likely to bring back creepy live activations and micro spots that melds romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up 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 public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an headline beat closer to the initial promo. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. His entries are marketed as event films, with a teaser that reveals little and a second beat that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to saturate 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has shown that a in-your-face, makeup-driven style can feel high-value on a moderate cost. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror surge that leans hard into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio deploys two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, carrying a evergreen supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is calling a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both fans and newcomers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build assets around setting detail, and creature work, elements that can lift large-format demand and fan-culture participation.

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 the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on careful craft and textual fidelity, this time set against lycan legends. The distributor has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is glowing.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal titles window into copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a cadence that amplifies both launch urgency and subscription bumps in the later phase. Prime Video interleaves licensed content with global acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog discovery, using featured rows, Halloween hubs, and curated strips to stretch the tail on the horror cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about internal projects and festival grabs, locking in horror entries with shorter lead times and coalescing around drops with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a tiered of targeted theatrical exposure and fast windowing that turns chatter to conversion. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has signaled readiness to purchase select projects with award winners or star-driven packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly activity when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 track with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is tight: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, upgraded for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a traditional cinema play for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through select festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday dates to expand. That positioning has worked well for auteur horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception encourages. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using targeted theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchises versus originals

By count, 2026 is weighted toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap household recognition. The risk, as ever, is brand wear. The practical approach is to package each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-tinted vision from a buzzed-about director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the configuration is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that observed windows did not foreclose a day-date move from winning when the brand was sticky. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror popped in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they pivot perspective and scale the storytelling. 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 lensed back-to-back, allows marketing to connect the chapters through protagonists and motifs and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

Production craft signals

The production chatter behind these films hint at a continued turn toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that leans on atmosphere and fear rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft features before rolling out a teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and generates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature execution and sets, which play well in fan-con activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is crowded. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid heftier brand moves. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the range of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

February through May set up the summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

End of summer through fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited asset reveals that put concept first.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has have a peek here done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s intelligent companion shifts into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: atmospheric game 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 battle to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance of power turns and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

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 contemporary retelling that returns the monster to nightmare, driven by Cronin’s hands-on craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting story that refracts terror through a child’s unreliable subjective view. Rating: TBD. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that riffs on today’s horror trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 ignites, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new family entangled with past horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-core horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBA. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: forthcoming. Production: continuing. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 antique diction and raw menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three execution-level forces drive this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-sequenced in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest repeatable beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will compete across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and this content action swell, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 underdog chase 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first surprise 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, 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 cadence and diversity. January is a spread, 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 gets blood-slick, 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 keep the discourse going and the seats filled 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 are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, acoustics, and framing 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is IP strength where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.