Mythic Terror rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across major platforms

An eerie supernatural shockfest from screenwriter / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an primordial malevolence when outsiders become tokens in a satanic ritual. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking narrative of continuance and ancient evil that will revamp scare flicks this ghoul season. Directed by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and emotionally thick cinema piece follows five figures who come to confined in a remote shack under the menacing command of Kyra, a female lead haunted by a time-worn scriptural evil. Anticipate to be immersed by a filmic journey that fuses gut-punch terror with biblical origins, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a classic concept in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is redefined when the beings no longer come beyond the self, but rather from deep inside. This portrays the darkest element of every character. The result is a bone-chilling mind game where the conflict becomes a merciless tug-of-war between good and evil.


In a remote outland, five adults find themselves cornered under the malicious force and possession of a obscure character. As the survivors becomes submissive to combat her manipulation, left alone and stalked by creatures unfathomable, they are made to wrestle with their worst nightmares while the moments without pause pushes forward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear swells and associations collapse, pressuring each member to reconsider their self and the idea of volition itself. The threat magnify with every breath, delivering a horror experience that marries occult fear with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to awaken elemental fright, an power that existed before mankind, manipulating inner turmoil, and dealing with a will that tests the soul when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra meant channeling something past sanity. She is ignorant until the takeover begins, and that transition is emotionally raw because it is so private.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for worldwide release beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering fans across the world can watch this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its initial teaser, which has attracted over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, exporting the fear to horror fans worldwide.


Don’t miss this life-altering fall into madness. Enter *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to uncover these chilling revelations about human nature.


For film updates, special features, and insider scoops directly from production, follow @YACMovie across entertainment pages and visit the movie portal.





Modern horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 cycle U.S. release slate Mixes myth-forward possession, underground frights, and series shake-ups

Ranging from endurance-driven terror rooted in ancient scripture and stretching into IP renewals set beside focused festival visions, 2025 is shaping up as horror’s most layered together with carefully orchestrated year in ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio majors lay down anchors via recognizable brands, simultaneously SVOD players crowd the fall with fresh voices together with ancient terrors. In the indie lane, independent banners is drafting behind the echoes of a banner 2024 fest year. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the other windows are mapped with care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and now, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are targeted, thus 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige fear returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 doubles down.

Universal kicks off the frame with a confident swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a crisp modern milieu. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Slated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. From director Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

By late summer, Warner’s pipeline launches the swan song within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson is back, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retrograde shiver, trauma explicitly handled, along with eerie supernatural rules. The ante is higher this round, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the calendar 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, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It hits in December, cornering year end horror.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend led 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 movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in 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 overweight mythology. No sequel clutter. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Series Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Emerging Currents

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

Body horror returns
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forward View: 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 scrap for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The coming 2026 Horror season: next chapters, new stories, paired with A jammed Calendar geared toward shocks

Dek The upcoming genre slate crams early with a January wave, after that stretches through summer corridors, and continuing into the holiday frame, blending marquee clout, novel approaches, and data-minded counterweight. Distributors with platforms are betting on cost discipline, exclusive theatrical windows first, and shareable marketing that turn these offerings into mainstream chatter.

The landscape of horror in 2026

This space has established itself as the steady play in annual schedules, a vertical that can surge when it resonates and still protect the downside when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year proved to greenlighters that lean-budget fright engines can shape pop culture, 2024 sustained momentum with director-led heat and stealth successes. The tailwind rolled into the 2025 frame, where revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is an opening for several lanes, from series extensions to fresh IP that export nicely. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across distributors, with strategic blocks, a spread of established brands and original hooks, and a recommitted priority on exhibition windows that power the aftermarket on premium video on demand and digital services.

Buyers contend the category now works like a schedule utility on the rollout map. Horror can arrive on numerous frames, yield a quick sell for creative and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with patrons that line up on Thursday nights and stick through the subsequent weekend if the feature connects. In the wake of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 configuration signals confidence in that playbook. The calendar gets underway with a crowded January corridor, then plants flags in spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while carving room for a fall run that carries into All Hallows period and into November. The schedule also includes the greater integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can develop over weeks, build word of mouth, and expand at the right moment.

Another broad trend is IP stewardship across linked properties and established properties. The players are not just rolling another entry. They are looking to package story carry-over with a must-see charge, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a fresh attitude or a casting choice that binds a new installment to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating physical effects work, practical effects and vivid settings. That pairing offers the 2026 slate a vital pairing of comfort and freshness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount leads early with two centerpiece entries that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, signaling it as both a baton pass and a heritage-centered character-centered film. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance telegraphs a memory-charged framework without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign fueled by recognizable motifs, initial cast looks, and a rollout cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will build four-quadrant chatter through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format making room for quick turns to whatever shapes trend lines that spring.

Universal has three differentiated plays. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is efficient, somber, and premise-first: a grieving man installs an machine companion that turns into a murderous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a stacked January, with marketing at Universal likely to recreate off-kilter promo beats and quick hits that interlaces romance and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a branding reveal to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele projects are sold as creative events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot offers Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press 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 consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, practical-first mix can feel deluxe on a disciplined budget. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror hit that leans into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, keeping a trusty supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is framing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both players and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build artifacts around mythos, and creature builds, elements that can stoke PLF interest and cosplayer momentum.

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 extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in meticulous craft and linguistic texture, this time orbiting lycan myth. The distributor has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is positive.

Digital platform strategies

Platform tactics for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a ordering that elevates both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up momentum in the late-window. Prime Video stitches together third-party pickups with worldwide entries and limited runs in theaters when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, horror hubs, and handpicked rows to lengthen the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps optionality about in-house releases and festival acquisitions, timing horror entries on this contact form shorter runways and eventizing premieres with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a staged of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a situational basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to acquire select projects with award winners or headline-cast packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly activity when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, upgraded for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a traditional cinema play for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the autumn stretch.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday dates to expand. That positioning has proved effective for craft-driven horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception warrants. 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 tandem, using limited theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their audience.

Series vs standalone

By weight, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use name recognition. The challenge, as ever, is overexposure. The near-term solution is to present each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is underscoring character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-accented approach from a fresh helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and visionary-led titles keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold 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 Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the deal build is recognizable enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and early previews.

Rolling three-year comps outline the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that held distribution windows did not stop a day-date move from winning when the brand was powerful. In 2024, precision craft horror over-performed in premium formats. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel new when they pivot perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, lets marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without doldrums.

How the look and feel evolve

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 slate point to a continued tilt toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that underscores tone and tension rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft profiles and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at red-band excess, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and sparks shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta refresh that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster realization and design, which fit with expo activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

January is heavy. 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 foggy reset amid marquee brands. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the spread of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Late winter and spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps 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 light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a bridge slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a slow-reveal plan and limited advance reveals that trade in concept over detail.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s machine mate unfolds into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: atmospheric 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 difficult boss scramble to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance of power turns and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fright, grounded in Cronin’s hands-on craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting chiller that filters its scares through a little one’s unsteady personal vantage. Rating: rating pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-financed and toplined ghost thriller.

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 spoof revival that needles modern genre fads and true-crime manias. Rating: undetermined. Production: production booked 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 detonates, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: production 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 ripples again, with a fresh family anchored to ancient dread. Rating: forthcoming. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on pure survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: forthcoming. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and raw menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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

Why the 2026 timing works

Three execution-level forces drive this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming launches. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate shareable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, clearing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first surprise 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

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

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sound field, 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.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand gravity where needed, original 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the screams sell the seats.