Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a hair raising horror feature, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

One unnerving spiritual fear-driven tale from narrative craftsman / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an timeless evil when passersby become vehicles in a demonic struggle. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching narrative of perseverance and primordial malevolence that will alter scare flicks this fall. Guided by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and claustrophobic story follows five strangers who regain consciousness trapped in a wooded cottage under the menacing dominion of Kyra, a tormented girl haunted by a ancient religious nightmare. Anticipate to be immersed by a filmic spectacle that weaves together primitive horror with biblical origins, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a iconic narrative in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is redefined when the dark entities no longer descend outside the characters, but rather inside their minds. This mirrors the most sinister part of the players. The result is a psychologically brutal identity crisis where the story becomes a merciless fight between virtue and vice.


In a unforgiving wilderness, five souls find themselves isolated under the malevolent rule and haunting of a haunted entity. As the group becomes vulnerable to combat her control, left alone and preyed upon by unknowns impossible to understand, they are cornered to face their emotional phantoms while the countdown relentlessly ticks onward toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion builds and connections implode, driving each character to reflect on their core and the philosophy of personal agency itself. The pressure magnify with every breath, delivering a fear-soaked story that connects demonic fright with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to uncover primal fear, an malevolence born of forgotten ages, operating within emotional vulnerability, and navigating a entity that redefines identity when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra required summoning something rooted in terror. She is unaware until the haunting manifests, and that turn is shocking because it is so deep.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be released for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring watchers across the world can survive this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first trailer, which has attracted over notable views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, bringing the film to scare fans abroad.


Do not miss this soul-jarring descent into darkness. Experience *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to acknowledge these nightmarish insights about inner darkness.


For previews, filmmaker commentary, and social posts from the creators, follow @YACFilm across online outlets and visit the movie portal.





Modern horror’s sea change: the 2025 season U.S. lineup braids together legend-infused possession, microbudget gut-punches, and legacy-brand quakes

Moving from pressure-cooker survival tales grounded in scriptural legend as well as franchise returns alongside surgical indie voices, 2025 appears poised to be the most stratified and tactically planned year for the modern era.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio majors plant stakes across the year via recognizable brands, concurrently digital services crowd the fall with unboxed visions alongside scriptural shivers. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is buoyed by the kinetic energy of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and now, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are methodical, accordingly 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige terror resurfaces

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s slate kicks off the frame with a marquee bet: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a sharp contemporary setting. Guided by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. arriving mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. From director Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer winds down, the WB camp bows the concluding entry from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re teams, and those signature textures resurface: throwback unease, trauma explicitly handled, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This time, the stakes are raised, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, stretches the animatronic parade, courting teens and the thirty something base. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Firsts: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatrical skews franchise first, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a room scale body horror descent led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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 calculated bet. No puffed out backstory. No continuity burden. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

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

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

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

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

Legacy Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

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

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

What to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror ascends again
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Big screen is a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The forthcoming 2026 genre cycle: next chapters, non-franchise titles, together with A brimming Calendar calibrated for nightmares

Dek The fresh genre slate stacks at the outset with a January wave, and then carries through the mid-year, and well into the festive period, weaving brand equity, novel approaches, and calculated calendar placement. The major players are relying on responsible budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and short-form initiatives that transform genre releases into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has grown into the bankable tool in studio lineups, a corner that can surge when it lands and still protect the losses when it fails to connect. After 2023 reconfirmed for studio brass that low-to-mid budget chillers can dominate audience talk, 2024 kept energy high with director-led heat and quiet over-performers. The run rolled into 2025, where re-entries and awards-minded projects underscored there is a lane for different modes, from returning installments to director-led originals that carry overseas. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a lineup that feels more orchestrated than usual across the major shops, with obvious clusters, a blend of brand names and new concepts, and a reinvigorated strategy on theatrical windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and streaming.

Planners observe the horror lane now acts as a swing piece on the schedule. The genre can premiere on many corridors, create a tight logline for teasers and social clips, and outstrip with fans that arrive on previews Thursday and hold through the next pass if the film hits. Post a work stoppage lag, the 2026 setup reflects certainty in that model. The year opens with a stacked January band, then targets spring into early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a fall corridor that carries into holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The gridline also spotlights the expanded integration of specialty distributors and digital platforms that can build gradually, build word of mouth, and widen at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is brand curation across unified worlds and classic IP. The players are not just greenlighting another sequel. They are setting up lore continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a typeface approach that flags a tonal shift or a cast configuration that anchors a new entry to a initial period. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the top original plays are prioritizing hands-on technique, makeup and prosthetics and location-forward worlds. That pairing affords 2026 a healthy mix of familiarity and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount sets the tone early with two front-of-slate moves that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, steering it as both a legacy handover and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture hints at a heritage-honoring bent without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Watch for a push rooted in iconic art, intro reveals, and a staggered trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will emphasize. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will build mass reach through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format making room for quick reframes to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE launches useful reference January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is simple, melancholic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man implements an intelligent companion that shifts into a harmful mate. The date lines it up at the front of a front-loaded month, with the Universal machine likely to revisit creepy live activations and bite-size content that interlaces affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title drop to become an fan moment closer to the teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are positioned as must-see filmmaker statements, with a minimalist tease and a second beat that shape mood without giving away the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has established that a gritty, practical-effects forward mix can feel high-value on a disciplined budget. Look for a grime-caked summer horror charge that pushes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio books two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, extending a steady supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both core fans and new audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around universe detail, and monster design, elements that can boost large-format demand and cosplayer momentum.

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 extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by meticulous craft and linguistic texture, this time exploring werewolf lore. The label has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Digital strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a stair-step that boosts both initial urgency and trial spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends third-party pickups with world buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on lifetime take. Netflix keeps optionality about own-slate titles and festival deals, confirming horror entries closer to drop and positioning as event drops rollouts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a paired of tailored theatrical exposure and quick platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a situational basis. The platform has been willing to purchase select projects with established auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation swells.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 arc with two IP plays. 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 atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, updated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas corridor to go wider. That positioning has helped for director-led genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception merits. 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 hand in hand, using precision theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their user base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By weight, 2026 is weighted toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap name recognition. The question, as ever, is overexposure. The operating solution is to brand each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is bringing forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the team and cast is steady enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years clarify the approach. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not prevent a day-and-date experiment from paying off when the brand was trusted. In 2024, director-craft horror surged in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they alter lens and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on 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 produced back-to-back, allows marketing to cross-link entries through cast and motif and to leave creative active without extended gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The filmmaking conversations behind this year’s genre telegraph a continued shift toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that spotlights unease and texture rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and sparks shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-aware reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster work and world-building, which play well in fan conventions and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel key. Look for trailers that emphasize razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. 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 moody palate cleanser amid heavier IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the palette of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth spreads.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited teasers that put concept first.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card burn.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s digital partner turns into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: tone-first 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 severe boss fight to survive on a desolate island as the control balance inverts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to dread, shaped by Cronin’s tactile craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting story that plays with the fright of a child’s unreliable senses. Rating: forthcoming. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-financed and star-fronted eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A send-up revival that satirizes in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: TBA. Production: cameras due to roll 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 detonates, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new clan tethered to lingering terrors. Rating: TBD. 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: to be announced publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-core horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: underway. 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 historical diction and raw menace. Rating: TBA. 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 shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three operational forces drive this lineup. First, production that slowed or migrated in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and tighter 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest repeatable beats 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 wins.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, making room for genre entries that can control a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will line up across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 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 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, 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 heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sound, 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is recognizable IP where it plays, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.