Antediluvian Terror stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling thriller, premiering October 2025 across global platforms

A bone-chilling occult fear-driven tale from literary architect / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an age-old force when unfamiliar people become subjects in a devilish maze. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking account of endurance and mythic evil that will reconstruct the fear genre this October. Helmed by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and moody motion picture follows five young adults who suddenly rise confined in a remote cabin under the hostile influence of Kyra, a possessed female claimed by a biblical-era scriptural evil. Ready yourself to be enthralled by a theatrical venture that merges soul-chilling terror with ancient myths, coming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a mainstay pillar in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is flipped when the fiends no longer appear from a different plane, but rather through their own souls. This mirrors the most primal shade of the players. The result is a harrowing moral showdown where the drama becomes a relentless push-pull between good and evil.


In a abandoned backcountry, five young people find themselves isolated under the dark control and overtake of a shadowy apparition. As the group becomes unable to combat her will, stranded and preyed upon by creatures ungraspable, they are obligated to acknowledge their darkest emotions while the hours brutally draws closer toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion amplifies and associations collapse, pushing each character to rethink their core and the nature of free will itself. The stakes intensify with every instant, delivering a nightmarish journey that marries spiritual fright with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to uncover instinctual horror, an force that existed before mankind, working through soul-level flaws, and highlighting a spirit that forces self-examination when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra required summoning something outside normal anguish. She is blind until the spirit seizes her, and that transformation is gut-wrenching because it is so personal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering customers internationally can witness this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its original clip, which has been viewed over a viral response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, giving access to the movie to horror fans worldwide.


Be sure to catch this bone-rattling ride through nightmares. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to acknowledge these chilling revelations about the human condition.


For bonus footage, special features, and social posts via the production team, follow @YACFilm across social media and visit youngandcursed.com.





Today’s horror inflection point: the 2025 season domestic schedule Mixes ancient-possession motifs, Indie Shockers, paired with tentpole growls

From grit-forward survival fare rooted in legendary theology all the way to brand-name continuations alongside incisive indie visions, 2025 is emerging as the most complex together with blueprinted year in recent memory.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio majors lay down anchors with franchise anchors, even as subscription platforms crowd the fall with fresh voices together with primordial unease. In the indie lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is propelled by the uplift from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Since Halloween is the prized date, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, yet in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are targeted, and 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium genre swings back

The majors are assertive. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s schedule sets the tone with a risk-forward move: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, inside today’s landscape. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Booked into mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Directed by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer eases, the Warner Bros. banner sets loose the finale of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re engages, and the tone that worked before is intact: nostalgic menace, trauma explicitly handled, with ghostly inner logic. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, stretches the animatronic parade, courting teens and the thirty something base. It opens in December, pinning the winter close.

Platform Plays: Low budgets, big teeth

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable led by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly 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 From Within: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in 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 overinflated mythology. No sequel clutter. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

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

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, led by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Dials to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror swings back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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 battle for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The approaching scare release year: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, And A stacked Calendar engineered for nightmares

Dek: The emerging terror slate crams in short order with a January traffic jam, and then rolls through summer, and running into the winter holidays, blending marquee clout, fresh ideas, and strategic counterplay. The big buyers and platforms are focusing on lean spends, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that pivot genre releases into national conversation.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has turned into the dependable release in studio calendars, a segment that can spike when it resonates and still hedge the losses when it misses. After 2023 re-taught studio brass that disciplined-budget pictures can command the discourse, 2024 sustained momentum with high-profile filmmaker pieces and quiet over-performers. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where revivals and premium-leaning entries underscored there is demand for multiple flavors, from series extensions to original features that play globally. The takeaway for 2026 is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across studios, with mapped-out bands, a balance of marquee IP and first-time concepts, and a re-energized eye on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on PVOD and streaming.

Distribution heads claim the category now functions as a wildcard on the grid. The genre can roll out on nearly any frame, furnish a easy sell for promo reels and UGC-friendly snippets, and lead with fans that line up on previews Thursday and stay strong through the sophomore frame if the release delivers. In the wake of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 configuration shows belief in that setup. The year launches with a thick January run, then plants flags in spring and early summer for balance, while holding room for a fall cadence that pushes into the Halloween corridor and past the holiday. The schedule also illustrates the increasing integration of specialty arms and streamers that can grow from platform, spark evangelism, and expand at the timely point.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across unified worlds and long-running brands. Studios are not just mounting another entry. They are seeking to position brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a brandmark that indicates a recalibrated tone or a casting move that anchors a fresh chapter to a initial period. At the parallel to that, the visionaries behind the headline-grabbing originals are favoring on-set craft, makeup and prosthetics and vivid settings. That blend delivers 2026 a solid mix of brand comfort and surprise, which is how the films export.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount plants an early flag with two marquee bets that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the focus, steering it as both a handoff and a DNA-forward character study. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture points to a classic-referencing bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive rooted in classic imagery, early character teases, and a staggered trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will play up. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will pursue general-audience talk through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick adjustments to whatever shapes pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three separate releases. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is efficient, soulful, and easily pitched: a grieving man purchases an synthetic partner that escalates into a perilous partner. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to bring back odd public stunts and snackable content that interweaves attachment and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release this website calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His entries are treated as director events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a follow-up trailer set that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor allows Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a gritty, hands-on effects method can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Expect a red-band summer horror charge that leans hard into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio sets two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, preserving a evergreen supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is framing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build materials around environmental design, and creature work, elements that can increase premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by minute detail and historical speech, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on stable tracks. The studio’s horror films shift to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a pacing that amplifies both opening-weekend urgency and platform bumps in the later window. Prime Video blends licensed titles with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in back-catalog play, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on aggregate take. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival deals, confirming horror entries tight to release and making event-like drops with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of limited theatrical footprints and swift platform pivots that drives paid trials from buzz. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has proven amenable to purchase select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 lane with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is uncomplicated: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, updated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the October weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the December frame to move out. That positioning has been successful for director-led genre with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception encourages. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using boutique theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchises versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate favors the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit marquee value. The potential drawback, as ever, is staleness. The preferred tactic is to pitch each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is elevating character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a emerging director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles bring 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 survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the cast-creatives package is grounded enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years outline the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept streaming intact did not block a simultaneous release test from working when the brand was sticky. In 2024, director-craft horror rose in premium formats. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they rotate perspective and elevate scope. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, creates space for marketing to relate entries through character arcs and themes and to keep assets in-market without hiatuses.

Behind-the-camera trends

The craft conversations behind the 2026 slate foreshadow a continued preference for in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that elevates grain and menace rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft features before rolling out a tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has performed 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 plays abroad in red-band trailers and generates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta pivot that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature craft and set design, which are ideal for booth activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel must-have. Look for trailers that highlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

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 somber counterpoint amid big-brand pushes. The month concludes 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 serious, but the spread of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth sustains.

Pre-summer months load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

End of summer through fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s core. 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 devastated man’s synthetic partner turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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

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 meet a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: aura-driven 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 tough boss scramble to survive on a remote island as the pecking order tilts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to nightmare, anchored by Cronin’s material craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 home-set haunting narrative that explores the unease of a child’s mercurial impressions. Rating: pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-led haunting thriller.

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 comic send-up that satirizes in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime obsessions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 breaks out, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a young family lashed to lingering terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A new start designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-driven horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBA. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: movies source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and primal menace. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces organize this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or migrated in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate shareable moments from test screenings, managed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will jostle across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where midrange-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 dark-horse hit 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.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, 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 stack through the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, aural design, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is name recognition where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.