Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on premium platforms

An frightening supernatural suspense story from screenwriter / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an ancient horror when strangers become tokens in a supernatural conflict. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving account of living through and age-old darkness that will remodel horror this cool-weather season. Realized by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and tone-heavy fearfest follows five characters who come to caught in a cut-off cabin under the hostile sway of Kyra, a female presence inhabited by a biblical-era sacred-era entity. Prepare to be shaken by a immersive venture that intertwines instinctive fear with timeless legends, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a historical trope in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is inverted when the dark entities no longer form beyond the self, but rather from within. This illustrates the most primal layer of the cast. The result is a intense inner struggle where the conflict becomes a perpetual fight between righteousness and malevolence.


In a haunting forest, five adults find themselves sealed under the malevolent sway and spiritual invasion of a mysterious female presence. As the characters becomes vulnerable to combat her command, marooned and chased by evils unfathomable, they are forced to face their darkest emotions while the clock ruthlessly runs out toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust surges and ties disintegrate, urging each cast member to scrutinize their character and the idea of conscious will itself. The risk accelerate with every passing moment, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that combines paranormal dread with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to awaken deep fear, an threat beyond time, channeling itself through soul-level flaws, and navigating a presence that forces self-examination when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra called for internalizing something unfamiliar to reason. She is blind until the control shifts, and that flip is haunting because it is so deep.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for digital release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering streamers anywhere can watch this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original promo, which has racked up over massive response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, delivering the story to a worldwide audience.


Mark your calendar for this cinematic ride through nightmares. Enter *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to acknowledge these terrifying truths about the soul.


For sneak peeks, director cuts, and announcements from the story's source, follow @YACMovie across entertainment pages and visit the movie’s homepage.





Today’s horror major pivot: 2025 across markets U.S. rollouts fuses archetypal-possession themes, festival-born jolts, alongside IP aftershocks

Spanning last-stand terror infused with scriptural legend all the way to returning series and sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is coalescing into the richest in tandem with calculated campaign year in the past ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio powerhouses stabilize the year via recognizable brands, in parallel premium streamers prime the fall with fresh voices alongside scriptural shivers. On the festival side, the independent cohort is drafting behind the kinetic energy of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, but this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are disciplined, therefore 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s slate leads off the quarter with a statement play: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Booked into mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer winds down, the Warner Bros. banner releases the last chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma driven plotting, and a cold supernatural calculus. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, speaking to teens and older millennials. It arrives in December, cornering year end horror.

Digital Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a room scale body horror descent with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is virtually assured for fall.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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. It looks like sharp programming. No swollen lore. No continuity burden. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Heritage Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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

Signals and Trends

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror comes roaring back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forecast: Fall crush plus winter X factor

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

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 mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The 2026 fright year to come: continuations, original films, plus A stacked Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek: The emerging scare cycle loads early with a January logjam, following that flows through peak season, and carrying into the year-end corridor, mixing brand heft, new voices, and tactical release strategy. Studios and streamers are doubling down on responsible budgets, box-office-first windows, and influencer-ready assets that elevate horror entries into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

This space has become the sturdy option in programming grids, a segment that can surge when it breaks through and still buffer the drawdown when it misses. After 2023 signaled to greenlighters that disciplined-budget fright engines can drive cultural conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with high-profile filmmaker pieces and stealth successes. The carry flowed into 2025, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers underscored there is space for diverse approaches, from brand follow-ups to one-and-done originals that translate worldwide. The takeaway for 2026 is a run that looks unusually coordinated across companies, with intentional bunching, a spread of marquee IP and original hooks, and a recommitted commitment on exhibition windows that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and streaming.

Marketers add the category now functions as a schedule utility on the distribution slate. Horror can launch on numerous frames, generate a simple premise for previews and vertical videos, and exceed norms with viewers that line up on first-look nights and keep coming through the follow-up frame if the entry fires. Coming out of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 cadence underscores assurance in that setup. The slate opens with a thick January lineup, then uses spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while leaving room for a autumn stretch that carries into the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The grid also illustrates the deeper integration of boutique distributors and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, grow buzz, and expand at the timely point.

A second macro trend is brand management across connected story worlds and storied titles. Studio teams are not just making another installment. They are looking to package brand continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title design that announces a recalibrated tone or a ensemble decision that bridges a incoming chapter to a foundational era. At the parallel to that, the creative leads behind the most anticipated originals are championing real-world builds, real effects and distinct locales. That pairing hands 2026 a solid mix of assurance and surprise, which is why the genre exports well.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount opens strong with two centerpiece entries that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the focus, steering it as both a succession moment and a classic-mode character-forward chapter. Production is active in Atlanta, and the authorial approach hints at a fan-service aware framework without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run centered on brand visuals, first-look character reveals, and a trailer cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will foreground. As a summer alternative, this one will seek wide buzz through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick reframes to whatever rules genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three separate plays. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is tight, somber, and big-hook: a grieving man purchases an AI companion that unfolds into a perilous partner. The date places it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate eerie street stunts and short-form creative that interweaves longing and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a branding reveal to become an headline beat closer to the early tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele titles are set up as filmmaker events, with a mystery-first teaser and a next wave of trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has proven that a in-your-face, on-set effects led execution can feel elevated on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that embraces international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a proven supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is selling as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both fans and curious audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build materials around mythos, and monster aesthetics, elements that can accelerate IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by careful craft and period speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus Features has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is warm.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal titles flow to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ordering that maximizes both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends library titles with world buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog engagement, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and programmed rows to lengthen the tail on overall cume. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix films and festival buys, dating horror entries closer to drop and positioning as event drops rollouts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and quick platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has indicated interest to acquire select projects with name filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for sustained usage when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 pipeline with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clean: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, elevated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday corridor to open out. That positioning has paid off for elevated genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception justifies. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited runs to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchises versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on household recognition. The potential drawback, as ever, is viewer burnout. The preferred tactic is to present each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is emphasizing character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French sensibility from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated 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 rests on period texture and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the team and cast is steady enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps frame the model. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that held distribution windows did not foreclose a day-date try from paying off when the brand was sticky. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror surged in premium screens. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they alter lens and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters shot consecutively, permits marketing to relate entries through personae and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without extended gaps.

Production craft signals

The creative meetings behind this year’s genre telegraph a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights texture and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in trade spotlights and guild coverage before rolling out a tone piece that elevates tone over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a self-aware reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster aesthetics and world-building, which fit with con floor moments and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel compelling. Look for trailers that accent fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that shine in top rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is stacked. Universal’s 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 big-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the spread of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Post-January through spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a opaque tease strategy and limited plot reveals that put concept first.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s artificial companion mutates into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 far-flung island as the pecking order tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to menace, built on Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 intimate haunting narrative that routes the horror through a young child’s wavering point of view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that satirizes modern genre fads and true crime fervors. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 spreads, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new clan linked to lingering terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A new start designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-first horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: closely held. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and primal menace. Rating: TBD. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three pragmatic forces structure this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound field, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts update. 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, this page roll out exact trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.