Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites mythic darkness, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, landing Oct 2025 on premium platforms

This terrifying ghostly suspense film from writer / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an archaic curse when passersby become conduits in a hellish maze. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing episode of overcoming and old world terror that will remodel the horror genre this fall. Guided by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and cinematic thriller follows five characters who emerge trapped in a cut-off wooden structure under the ominous will of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a millennia-old sacrosanct terror. Be prepared to be seized by a audio-visual journey that integrates deep-seated panic with legendary tales, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a legendary trope in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is reimagined when the dark entities no longer originate from elsewhere, but rather inside their minds. This portrays the malevolent version of the players. The result is a emotionally raw psychological battle where the tension becomes a intense contest between heaven and hell.


In a haunting no-man's-land, five young people find themselves contained under the malicious control and spiritual invasion of a haunted apparition. As the companions becomes unresisting to evade her curse, left alone and attacked by powers indescribable, they are obligated to reckon with their soulful dreads while the clock harrowingly ticks onward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion builds and friendships collapse, compelling each protagonist to question their self and the idea of liberty itself. The threat intensify with every instant, delivering a nightmarish journey that harmonizes otherworldly panic with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to evoke pure dread, an presence beyond time, influencing soul-level flaws, and examining a being that erodes the self when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra called for internalizing something beneath mortal despair. She is unaware until the spirit seizes her, and that conversion is shocking because it is so raw.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be released for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering horror lovers from coast to coast can dive into this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first preview, which has earned over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, presenting the nightmare to fans of fear everywhere.


Experience this unforgettable trip into the unknown. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to experience these nightmarish insights about the mind.


For sneak peeks, extra content, and alerts directly from production, follow @YACMovie across your favorite networks and visit the official movie site.





Horror’s sea change: 2025 across markets U.S. lineup fuses ancient-possession motifs, indie terrors, plus Franchise Rumbles

Running from fight-to-live nightmare stories saturated with mythic scripture and stretching into franchise returns alongside incisive indie visions, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated combined with strategic year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Major studios lock in tentpoles by way of signature titles, concurrently SVOD players front-load the fall with first-wave breakthroughs and ancestral chills. On another front, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is carried on the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the other windows are mapped with care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, yet in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are calculated, thus 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s distribution arm starts the year with a big gambit: a modernized Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Under director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. dated for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Under Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline delivers the closing chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson resumes command, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: 70s style chill, trauma explicitly handled, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The ante is higher this round, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Low budgets, big teeth

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a tight space body horror vignette featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, 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. Absent a posted platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend led by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is canny scheduling. No heavy handed lore. No legacy baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

Trends to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror resurges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The next scare Year Ahead: entries, standalone ideas, And A loaded Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new genre year lines up immediately with a January bottleneck, subsequently extends through the summer months, and deep into the holiday stretch, braiding name recognition, new voices, and well-timed counter-scheduling. Major distributors and platforms are relying on tight budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and influencer-ready assets that convert these offerings into mainstream chatter.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This category has established itself as the most reliable tool in annual schedules, a vertical that can grow when it hits and still insulate the exposure when it misses. After 2023 proved to greenlighters that lean-budget chillers can drive social chatter, 2024 continued the surge with signature-voice projects and unexpected risers. The energy flowed into the 2025 frame, where revivals and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is a market for several lanes, from series extensions to filmmaker-driven originals that play globally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a programming that looks unusually coordinated across the industry, with planned clusters, a balance of legacy names and original hooks, and a reinvigorated priority on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on paid VOD and home platforms.

Executives say the horror lane now operates like a swing piece on the schedule. The genre can bow on nearly any frame, yield a clean hook for marketing and platform-native cuts, and punch above weight with moviegoers that lean in on Thursday nights and hold through the next pass if the offering hits. Following a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 configuration shows belief in that setup. The year kicks off with a crowded January lineup, then taps spring and early summer for contrast, while clearing room for a fall run that carries into spooky season and into the next week. The layout also reflects the greater integration of specialized imprints and streamers that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and scale up at the strategic time.

A further high-level trend is brand curation across linked properties and long-running brands. Studios are not just mounting another chapter. They are aiming to frame ongoing narrative with a occasion, whether that is a title design that flags a refreshed voice or a casting choice that threads a new installment to a vintage era. At the in tandem, the visionaries behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing material texture, special makeup and location-forward worlds. That fusion provides the 2026 slate a healthy mix of known notes and surprise, which is how the films export.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two marquee pushes that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the spine, positioning the film as both a relay and a origin-leaning character-focused installment. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance suggests a throwback-friendly framework without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave rooted in signature symbols, character previews, and a promo sequence timed to late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will spotlight. As a summer alternative, this one will drive wide buzz through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick shifts to whatever tops the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three specific entries. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is elegant, soulful, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man onboards an artificial companion that unfolds into a lethal partner. The date positions it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to revisit viral uncanny stunts and bite-size content that melds affection and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a branding reveal to become an PR pop closer to the teaser. The timing movies stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s pictures are framed as signature events, with a minimalist tease and a later creative that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor creates space for Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to 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 helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has shown that a tactile, on-set effects led execution can feel big on a efficient spend. Frame it as a splatter summer horror shot that leans into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, maintaining a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is marketing as a clean-slate approach 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 focus to serve both loyalists and first-timers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build marketing units around canon, and creature design, elements that can lift large-format demand and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places 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 immersive craft and language, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is glowing.

Where the platforms fit in

Digital strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s slate shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a sequence that optimizes both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the later phase. Prime Video stitches together catalogue additions with global pickups and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, fright rows, and featured rows to sustain interest on the horror cume. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival pickups, locking in horror entries toward the drop and staging as events debuts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a hybrid of selective theatrical runs and accelerated platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to secure select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation builds.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 slate with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is uncomplicated: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, updated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday frame to expand. That positioning has paid off for director-led genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using small theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their user base.

Series vs standalone

By number, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The risk, as ever, is brand erosion. The pragmatic answer is to sell each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is bringing forward character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French sensibility from a rising filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the assembly is familiar enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent comps outline the template. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that maintained windows did not block a day-date move from winning when the brand was big. In 2024, art-forward horror punched above its weight in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they change perspective and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, allows marketing to connect the chapters through personae and themes and to continue assets in field without pause points.

Craft and creative trends

The craft conversations behind the 2026 slate suggest a continued tilt toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that centers mood and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft features before rolling out a mood teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature work and production design, which fit with expo activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel necessary. Look for trailers that accent razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that explode in larger rooms.

How the year maps out

January is busy. Universal’s 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 bigger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the range of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth spreads.

Winter into spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

August into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a bridge slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a minimalist tease strategy and limited plot reveals that put concept first.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card burn.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s synthetic partner unfolds into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy 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 survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 work to survive on a lonely island as the power balance of power turns and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to menace, rooted in Cronin’s practical craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting narrative that explores the fear of a child’s tricky point of view. Rating: to be announced. Production: post-ready. Positioning: major-studio and headline-actor led eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that lampoons hot-button genre motifs and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBD. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new family entangled with ancient dread. Rating: undetermined. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: pending. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on classic survival-horror tone over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBD. Production: underway. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 primordial menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why this year, why now

Three workable forces drive this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-sequenced in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work shareable moments from test screenings, precision scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can seize a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will stack 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 take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 disciplined-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, acoustics, and visuals that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is recognizable IP where it plays, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep the secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.