Primordial Terror awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding feature, landing Oct 2025 on major platforms

One haunting mystic horror tale from cinematographer / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an long-buried terror when passersby become victims in a supernatural contest. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking journey of survival and age-old darkness that will transform scare flicks this ghoul season. Produced by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and cinematic thriller follows five unacquainted souls who wake up stranded in a unreachable dwelling under the malevolent power of Kyra, a young woman dominated by a prehistoric sacrosanct terror. Ready yourself to be absorbed by a motion picture presentation that weaves together deep-seated panic with mythic lore, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a time-honored trope in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is redefined when the demons no longer come from external sources, but rather from deep inside. This marks the deepest corner of the protagonists. The result is a emotionally raw identity crisis where the suspense becomes a unforgiving fight between purity and corruption.


In a desolate terrain, five souls find themselves trapped under the malicious effect and inhabitation of a unknown person. As the protagonists becomes unresisting to resist her control, detached and attacked by beings inconceivable, they are driven to endure their worst nightmares while the hours coldly strikes toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia mounts and connections dissolve, pushing each figure to evaluate their core and the principle of personal agency itself. The cost amplify with every short lapse, delivering a frightening tale that combines paranormal dread with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to uncover core terror, an darkness older than civilization itself, feeding on emotional fractures, and testing a will that questions who we are when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra demanded embodying something deeper than fear. She is ignorant until the possession kicks in, and that turn is shocking because it is so private.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing households across the world can enjoy this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first preview, which has been viewed over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, making the film to international horror buffs.


Make sure to see this cinematic voyage through terror. Stream *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to see these evil-rooted truths about the human condition.


For cast commentary, production insights, and announcements from those who lived it, follow @YACFilm across social media and visit our horror hub.





Today’s horror Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. calendar integrates biblical-possession ideas, signature indie scares, paired with tentpole growls

Across survival horror steeped in primordial scripture to IP renewals and surgical indie voices, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated and strategic year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio powerhouses hold down the year with established lines, as digital services crowd the fall with first-wave breakthroughs in concert with ancestral chills. In parallel, festival-forward creators is propelled by the backdraft from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, notably this year, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are precise, as a result 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: High-craft horror returns

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal Pictures kicks off the frame with a statement play: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Slated for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Helmed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. drops the final chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even with a familiar chassis, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson returns, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retro dread, trauma as narrative engine, and eerie supernatural logic. This pass pushes higher, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The follow up digs further into canon, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a two hander body horror spiral starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, 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 chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a smart play. No swollen lore. No brand fatigue. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Signals and Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror swings back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

What’s Next: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The new fright season: returning titles, new stories, together with A loaded Calendar tailored for screams

Dek The arriving horror calendar crams up front with a January wave, thereafter carries through summer corridors, and carrying into the holidays, balancing marquee clout, new voices, and tactical release strategy. Studios and platforms are committing to lean spends, theatrical leads, and social-fueled campaigns that pivot horror entries into cross-demo moments.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror sector has become the dependable option in annual schedules, a corner that can lift when it catches and still cushion the losses when it underperforms. After 2023 showed greenlighters that responsibly budgeted entries can drive the national conversation, the following year continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and quiet over-performers. The trend moved into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and critical darlings demonstrated there is a market for multiple flavors, from sequel tracks to fresh IP that export nicely. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a grid that seems notably aligned across the major shops, with defined corridors, a blend of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a tightened attention on box-office windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and digital services.

Executives say the space now slots in as a swing piece on the release plan. The genre can open on a wide range of weekends, offer a sharp concept for marketing and TikTok spots, and outpace with demo groups that lean in on Thursday previews and stick through the second weekend if the film pays off. Emerging from a production delay era, the 2026 setup telegraphs belief in that logic. The calendar launches with a heavy January band, then leans on spring and early summer for alternate plays, while keeping space for a fall corridor that reaches into late October and past the holiday. The arrangement also shows the ongoing integration of indie distributors and platforms that can stage a platform run, ignite recommendations, and expand at the proper time.

Another broad trend is brand curation across interlocking continuities and established properties. The players are not just mounting another continuation. They are moving to present threaded continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a logo package that conveys a tonal shift or a casting move that binds a next film to a original cycle. At the very same time, the filmmakers behind the most watched originals are embracing real-world builds, special makeup and site-specific worlds. That pairing produces 2026 a confident blend of recognition and invention, which is how the films export.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount defines the early cadence with two centerpiece moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the center, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach conveys a throwback-friendly angle without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with signature symbols, character spotlights, and a trailer cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will emphasize. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will build mass reach through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format enabling quick reframes to whatever shapes the discourse that spring.

Universal has three unique plays. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is elegant, loss-driven, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man onboards an machine companion that turns into a murderous partner. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to replay uncanny-valley stunts and short-form creative that interweaves attachment and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the useful reference feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a official title to become an attention spike closer to the initial tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele projects are sold as marquee events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later creative that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-month date gives the studio room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a gnarly, practical-effects forward method can feel cinematic on a tight budget. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror charge that maximizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, preserving a bankable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is positioning as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both devotees and casuals. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can accelerate IMAX and PLF uptake and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by immersive craft and language, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus Features has already locked the day for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform windowing in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s horror titles shift to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that fortifies both first-week urgency and sign-up momentum in the downstream. Prime Video stitches together licensed titles with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library engagement, using seasonal hubs, October hubs, and curated strips to sustain interest on lifetime take. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival grabs, scheduling horror entries near their drops and staging as events premieres with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a paired of precision releases and speedy platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a situational basis. The platform has signaled readiness to buy select projects with name filmmakers or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 lane with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is simple: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, modernized 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 indicated a theatrical-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday corridor to open out. That positioning has worked well for arthouse horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception encourages. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using targeted theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By count, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness franchise value. The trade-off, as ever, is overexposure. The operating solution is to market each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-tinted vision from a new voice. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and talent-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the team and cast is comforting enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and early previews.

Rolling three-year comps illuminate the logic. In 2023, a exclusive window model that preserved streaming windows did not stop a same-day experiment from paying off when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror exceeded expectations in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, creates space for marketing to connect the chapters through relationships and themes and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 slate point to a continued preference for tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that leans on aura and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-correct language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead press and department features before rolling out a preview that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster realization and design, which play well in fan-con activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel primary. Look for trailers that foreground pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that play in premium auditoriums.

Annual flow

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid marquee brands. The month ends 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 credible, but the tone spread creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth sustains.

Pre-summer months stage summer. Scream have a peek at these guys 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited advance reveals that put concept first.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s AI companion turns into something perilously amorous. 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: gothic-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 severe boss struggle to survive on a cut-off island as the chain of command inverts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 modern reimagining that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s hands-on craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting tale that channels the fear through a kid’s uneven perspective. Rating: pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-financed and name-above-title occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A satire sequel that riffs on contemporary horror memes and true-crime crazes. Rating: TBD. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a unlucky family snared by lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-first horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: pending. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and bone-deep menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a big-screen run before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026, why now

Three pragmatic forces define this lineup. First, production that stalled or reshuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming placements. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on shareable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will share space across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit 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 maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, right-sized allotments, 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 surface detail, soundcraft, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is name recognition where it counts, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the gasps sell the seats.