Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a pulse pounding shocker, premiering Oct 2025 across leading streamers

One frightening paranormal thriller from literary architect / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an age-old terror when unfamiliar people become victims in a supernatural struggle. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing episode of struggle and timeless dread that will resculpt the horror genre this fall. Produced by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and shadowy feature follows five lost souls who find themselves ensnared in a far-off cottage under the oppressive sway of Kyra, a female presence consumed by a ancient biblical demon. Steel yourself to be drawn in by a theatrical journey that weaves together visceral dread with arcane tradition, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a time-honored motif in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reversed when the malevolences no longer arise beyond the self, but rather inside their minds. This illustrates the shadowy layer of every character. The result is a bone-chilling moral showdown where the narrative becomes a relentless confrontation between righteousness and malevolence.


In a abandoned terrain, five adults find themselves imprisoned under the dark rule and domination of a obscure female presence. As the cast becomes paralyzed to evade her rule, stranded and tracked by creatures ungraspable, they are forced to wrestle with their darkest emotions while the hours harrowingly pushes forward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion grows and bonds crack, demanding each protagonist to doubt their self and the concept of independent thought itself. The danger amplify with every second, delivering a nightmarish journey that combines paranormal dread with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to awaken raw dread, an presence born of forgotten ages, operating within our weaknesses, and confronting a force that tests the soul when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra required summoning something rooted in terror. She is in denial until the takeover begins, and that conversion is shocking because it is so emotional.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for home viewing beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering fans from coast to coast can face this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original promo, which has collected over notable views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, spreading the horror to international horror buffs.


Join this gripping exploration of dread. Explore *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to experience these spiritual awakenings about the psyche.


For exclusive trailers, behind-the-scenes content, and press updates via the production team, follow @YACMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit our spooky domain.





Current horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 season U.S. lineup blends ancient-possession motifs, art-house nightmares, and Franchise Rumbles

Across grit-forward survival fare suffused with primordial scripture all the way to legacy revivals as well as pointed art-house angles, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated as well as intentionally scheduled year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. major banners lock in tentpoles with established lines, in tandem subscription platforms flood the fall with new voices as well as archetypal fear. Meanwhile, the art-house flank is carried on the carry of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween stays the prime week, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and now, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are surgical, therefore 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

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

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal kicks off the frame with an audacious swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a clear present-tense world. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. arriving mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Eli Craig directs starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, the WB camp launches the swan song from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: nostalgic menace, trauma as theme, and a cold supernatural calculus. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, stretches the animatronic parade, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It arrives in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a sealed box body horror arc including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and helmed by 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 dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No overstuffed canon. No brand fatigue. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

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

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Franchise Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

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

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Outlook: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. 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 anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

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 play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The upcoming terror release year: returning titles, new stories, alongside A loaded Calendar designed for Scares

Dek The current scare cycle loads right away with a January crush, from there stretches through the summer months, and well into the year-end corridor, blending brand equity, inventive spins, and shrewd counter-scheduling. Studios and streamers are leaning into cost discipline, box-office-first windows, and influencer-ready assets that transform the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

Horror momentum into 2026

The genre has turned into the steady lever in distribution calendars, a segment that can break out when it catches and still safeguard the drag when it fails to connect. After 2023 showed studio brass that responsibly budgeted fright engines can shape pop culture, 2024 extended the rally with auteur-driven buzzy films and stealth successes. The head of steam carried into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and festival-grade titles proved there is a market for a variety of tones, from sequel tracks to original features that play globally. The sum for 2026 is a schedule that seems notably aligned across studios, with clear date clusters, a harmony of household franchises and untested plays, and a revived stance on theater exclusivity that drive downstream revenue on PVOD and digital services.

Buyers contend the horror lane now acts as a wildcard on the release plan. Horror can debut on almost any weekend, furnish a sharp concept for previews and short-form placements, and outstrip with ticket buyers that lean in on preview nights and continue through the sophomore frame if the offering hits. After a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 plan indicates faith in that model. The slate launches with a busy January band, then turns to spring and early summer for counterweight, while leaving room for a late-year stretch that reaches into Halloween and into November. The gridline also illustrates the tightening integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can develop over weeks, generate chatter, and roll out at the optimal moment.

An added macro current is franchise tending across shared universes and long-running brands. The players are not just greenlighting another sequel. They are setting up connection with a premium feel, whether that is a brandmark that suggests a refreshed voice or a casting choice that binds a latest entry to a vintage era. At the simultaneously, the filmmakers behind the headline-grabbing originals are championing hands-on technique, in-camera effects and place-driven backdrops. That blend produces the 2026 slate a strong blend of familiarity and freshness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount sets the tone early with two prominent entries that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, my review here 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at this page the core, angling it as both a cross-generational handoff and a return-to-roots character-focused installment. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach telegraphs a classic-referencing mode without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected built on heritage visuals, character spotlights, and a tiered teaser plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will chase broad awareness through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick reframes to whatever leads genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three separate pushes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is tight, loss-driven, and high-concept: a grieving man activates an intelligent companion that shifts into a dangerous lover. The date nudges it to the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to iterate on odd public stunts and quick hits that interlaces attachment and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a public title to become an fan moment closer to the teaser. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s releases are set up as filmmaker events, with a mystery-first teaser and a next wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor lets the studio to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has consistently shown that a blood-soaked, hands-on effects strategy can feel elevated on a middle budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror jolt that spotlights foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio lines up two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, carrying a trusty supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is describing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both fans and newcomers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign pieces around narrative world, and monster aesthetics, elements that can increase format premiums and fan events.

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 builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by immersive craft and linguistic texture, this time steeped in lycan lore. The label has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is enthusiastic.

How the platforms plan to play it

Windowing plans in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s horror titles feed copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a sequence that expands both premiere heat and subscription bumps in the after-window. Prime Video blends acquired titles with global pickups and short theatrical plays when the data signals it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in catalog discovery, using prominent placements, fright rows, and handpicked rows to maximize the tail on the horror cume. Netflix keeps flexible about own-slate titles and festival pickups, locking in horror entries with shorter lead times and framing as events drops with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a laddered of precision theatrical plays and short jumps to platform that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has proven amenable to secure select projects with established auteurs or star-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 corridor with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is straightforward: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, retooled for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the October weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday corridor to widen. That positioning has served the company well for director-led genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception warrants. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited runs to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By skew, 2026 leans toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness franchise value. The concern, as ever, is brand wear. The workable fix is to sell each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is foregrounding character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a European tilt from a new voice. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the assembly is recognizable enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

The last three-year set help explain the model. In 2023, a cinema-first model that preserved streaming windows did not foreclose a day-date try from winning when the brand was sticky. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they alter lens and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, permits marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without doldrums.

Craft and creative trends

The filmmaking conversations behind 2026 horror point to a continued turn toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with 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 underscores aura and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft coverage before rolling out a tone piece that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a self-referential reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster work and world-building, which favor convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel must-have. Look for trailers that foreground razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that land in big rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is jammed. 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 brooding contrast amid bigger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tone spread gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

February through May prepare summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited pre-release reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can win the holiday when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s virtual companion escalates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a altering 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 abrasive boss claw to survive on a lonely island as the power balance of power reverses and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to fright, built on Cronin’s tactile craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting story that explores the panic of a child’s uncertain perspective. Rating: forthcoming. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-scale and star-fronted ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that teases today’s horror trends and true crime fixations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 ignites, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household entangled with lingering terrors. 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: to be announced publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in true survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: undetermined. 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: unrevealed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: proceeding. 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 historical diction and elemental dread. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active weblink prep with holiday date set. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three grounded forces drive this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-slotted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and leaner 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will compete across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where low-to-mid 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 exploit those windows. 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives 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 austere, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, soundcraft, and framing 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 Looks Exciting

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand power where it counts, 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.