Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

One chilling spectral fear-driven tale from literary architect / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an prehistoric malevolence when foreigners become tools in a fiendish experiment. Available this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing narrative of resilience and forgotten curse that will transform the horror genre this harvest season. Created by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and shadowy feature follows five people who arise imprisoned in a secluded hideaway under the malevolent grip of Kyra, a possessed female possessed by a antiquated holy text monster. Prepare to be immersed by a filmic presentation that melds primitive horror with biblical origins, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a classic trope in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is reimagined when the presences no longer arise outside the characters, but rather deep within. This echoes the most terrifying aspect of every character. The result is a emotionally raw moral showdown where the intensity becomes a relentless fight between purity and corruption.


In a barren wilderness, five souls find themselves trapped under the malicious effect and inhabitation of a unknown person. As the group becomes vulnerable to break her will, left alone and followed by forces unimaginable, they are confronted to encounter their inner demons while the seconds without pause ticks toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust builds and partnerships dissolve, demanding each protagonist to reflect on their core and the principle of volition itself. The hazard magnify with every beat, delivering a chilling narrative that intertwines paranormal dread with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to tap into basic terror, an threat before modern man, working through fragile psyche, and challenging a evil that erodes the self when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra demanded embodying something beneath mortal despair. She is insensitive until the possession kicks in, and that metamorphosis is terrifying because it is so deep.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving viewers from coast to coast can get immersed in this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its release of trailer #1, which has pulled in over notable views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, bringing the film to scare fans abroad.


Tune in for this unforgettable trip into the unknown. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to uncover these terrifying truths about the mind.


For sneak peeks, making-of footage, and reveals straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across platforms and visit our spooky domain.





The horror genre’s inflection point: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts interlaces primeval-possession lore, independent shockers, together with Franchise Rumbles

Kicking off with endurance-driven terror grounded in primordial scripture and onward to canon extensions as well as surgical indie voices, 2025 is shaping up as the most stratified plus strategic year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. major banners are anchoring the year with established lines, as premium streamers stack the fall with new voices plus old-world menace. On the independent axis, the artisan tier is drafting behind the afterglow from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, but this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are calculated, hence 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige fear returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal banner leads off the quarter with a statement play: a contemporary Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. From director Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Booked into mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Steered by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner Bros. banner rolls out the capstone from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even with a familiar chassis, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Next is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re teams, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retro dread, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The bar is raised this go, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, thickens the animatronic pantheon, bridging teens and legacy players. It lands in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a forensic chill anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

On the docket is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, 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 reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped 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 looks like sharp programming. No puffed out backstory. No brand fatigue. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy IP: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, guided 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 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.

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Originals on platforms bite harder
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Fall stack and winter swing card

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 like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

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 oncoming chiller cycle: continuations, Originals, alongside A packed Calendar engineered for goosebumps

Dek The upcoming genre season loads at the outset with a January pile-up, before it carries through summer corridors, and carrying into the holiday frame, marrying legacy muscle, untold stories, and data-minded calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are relying on efficient budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and buzz-forward plans that turn these films into cross-demo moments.

The landscape of horror in 2026

This category has grown into the bankable tool in release plans, a category that can grow when it performs and still cushion the exposure when it does not. After the 2023 year signaled to strategy teams that efficiently budgeted fright engines can lead cultural conversation, the following year held pace with high-profile filmmaker pieces and surprise hits. The momentum fed into 2025, where revived properties and arthouse crossovers proved there is a lane for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The combined impact for 2026 is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across the industry, with clear date clusters, a blend of legacy names and new packages, and a revived priority on theater exclusivity that enhance post-theatrical value on premium rental and subscription services.

Executives say the horror lane now functions as a flex slot on the schedule. The genre can kick off on nearly any frame, yield a clear pitch for trailers and TikTok spots, and outstrip with demo groups that arrive on preview nights and keep coming through the next pass if the entry works. Emerging from a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 configuration indicates belief in that model. The year begins with a busy January run, then targets spring into early summer for balance, while carving room for a fall run that stretches into Halloween and into early November. The grid also includes the tightening integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can nurture a platform play, spark evangelism, and broaden at the strategic time.

A parallel macro theme is brand management across shared universes and legacy franchises. Distribution groups are not just pushing another chapter. They are aiming to frame lore continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a brandmark that indicates a tonal shift or a lead change that reconnects a next entry to a vintage era. At the parallel to that, the auteurs behind the top original plays are returning to tactile craft, physical gags and distinct locales. That convergence yields 2026 a smart balance of recognition and unexpected turns, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount plants an early flag with two centerpiece moves that live at opposite ends of the horror tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the spine, angling it as both a handoff and a heritage-centered character-first story. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture telegraphs a legacy-leaning campaign without going over the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push leaning on heritage visuals, first-look character reveals, and a promo sequence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also brings back 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 creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will lean on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick redirects to whatever dominates the conversation that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is elegant, heartbroken, and big-hook: a grieving man purchases an machine companion that evolves into a deadly partner. The date slots it at the front of a front-loaded month, with marketing at Universal likely to mirror uncanny live moments and short reels that hybridizes longing and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a proper title to become an earned moment closer to the early tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s releases are branded as auteur events, with a teaser that reveals little and a later trailer push that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a raw, makeup-driven aesthetic can feel high-value on a mid-range budget. Look for a blood-and-grime summer horror charge that leans hard into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio sets two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, maintaining a bankable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is selling as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both franchise faithful and fresh viewers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around canon, and creature builds, elements that can lift large-format demand and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror built on meticulous craft and linguistic texture, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus Features has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s genre slate feed copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ordering that optimizes both week-one demand and sign-up spikes in the later phase. Prime Video interleaves outside acquisitions with worldwide buys and limited runs in theaters when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library curation, using seasonal hubs, holiday hubs, and collection rows to prolong the run on lifetime take. Netflix keeps options open about originals and festival grabs, scheduling horror entries near launch and staging as events arrivals with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a two-step of precision releases and quick platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a curated basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to pick up select projects with recognized filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for sustained usage when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is direct: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, modernized for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a standard theatrical run for the title, an promising marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through select festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas corridor to open out. That positioning has delivered for elevated genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception prompts. Watch for 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 in parallel, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their community.

Series vs standalone

By tilt, 2026 is weighted toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to pitch each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is elevating character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-inflected take from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is assuring enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent-year comps outline the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not obstruct a same-day experiment from succeeding when the brand was strong. In 2024, auteur craft horror punched above its weight in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reframe POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on 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 lensed sequentially, creates space for marketing to interlace chapters through character web and themes and to leave creative active without pause points.

How the look and feel evolve

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries signal a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that foregrounds creep and texture rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft spotlights before rolling out a teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta pivot that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature work and production design, which work nicely for booth activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that highlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that sing on PLF.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is full. 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 somber counterpoint amid headline IP. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the range of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Post-January through spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

End of summer through fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a early fall window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited asset reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s intelligent companion turns into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 encounter a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss push to survive on a remote island as the power dynamic upends and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to horror, based on Cronin’s tactile craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 piece that plays with the horror of a child’s unreliable impressions. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-scale and headline-actor led supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A send-up revival that lampoons modern genre fads and true crime fascinations. Rating: not yet rated. 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 breaks out, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further extends again, with a young family bound to older hauntings. Rating: not yet rated. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-first horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBD. Production: ongoing. 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 era-faithful speech and raw menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces frame this lineup. First, production that stalled or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and compressed schedules. 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming launches. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate repeatable beats from test screenings, curated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, providing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will stack across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 maximize 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 bleak, 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 ratchet upward, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, disciplined 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 tactility, sonics, and imagery 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is IP strength where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.