Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts age-old dread, a fear soaked horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on premium platforms

This frightening unearthly suspense story from cinematographer / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an primordial force when guests become pawns in a satanic ritual. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving portrayal of resistance and archaic horror that will reimagine the fear genre this harvest season. Produced by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and emotionally thick film follows five teens who wake up trapped in a far-off structure under the malevolent dominion of Kyra, a young woman haunted by a millennia-old sacrosanct terror. Steel yourself to be absorbed by a screen-based venture that merges deep-seated panic with mythic lore, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a legendary foundation in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is reversed when the entities no longer develop from beyond, but rather deep within. This illustrates the darkest dimension of these individuals. The result is a intense emotional conflict where the plotline becomes a unyielding confrontation between heaven and hell.


In a forsaken woodland, five adults find themselves sealed under the malicious influence and overtake of a shadowy person. As the survivors becomes helpless to oppose her influence, detached and hunted by creatures unfathomable, they are pushed to stand before their emotional phantoms while the doomsday meter unceasingly moves toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion amplifies and links collapse, coercing each protagonist to question their personhood and the idea of liberty itself. The stakes magnify with every breath, delivering a paranormal ride that fuses demonic fright with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to channel primal fear, an evil beyond time, embedding itself in our weaknesses, and wrestling with a darkness that redefines identity when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra demanded embodying something rooted in terror. She is unaware until the spirit seizes her, and that pivot is haunting because it is so private.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that subscribers globally can face this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its intro video, which has collected over strong viewer count.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, taking the terror to international horror buffs.


Avoid skipping this cinematic fall into madness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to witness these chilling revelations about the human condition.


For teasers, filmmaker commentary, and announcements from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit the film’s website.





Contemporary horror’s tipping point: the 2025 cycle U.S. calendar interlaces Mythic Possession, art-house nightmares, and series shake-ups

Moving from life-or-death fear saturated with mythic scripture and stretching into IP renewals plus pointed art-house angles, 2025 looks like horror’s most layered combined with carefully orchestrated year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. the big studios bookend the months with franchise anchors, as streamers saturate the fall with unboxed visions and legend-coded dread. Across the art-house lane, indie storytellers is surfing the momentum from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, distinctly in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are exacting, accordingly 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige terror resurfaces

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal banner fires the first shot with a confident swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in an immediate now. Directed by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. arriving mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Led by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. Pictures unveils the final movement within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: retrograde shiver, trauma explicitly handled, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time, the stakes are raised, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It opens in December, pinning the winter close.

Platform Plays: Modest spend, serious shock

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror duet anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. From writer director 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 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. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a smart play. No heavy handed lore. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Brands: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, steered by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Key Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

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

Originals on platforms bite harder
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forward View: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

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 2026 genre calendar year ahead: Sequels, new stories, And A Crowded Calendar aimed at goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new scare slate stacks from the jump with a January wave, from there runs through June and July, and deep into the holidays, braiding franchise firepower, new concepts, and smart counterweight. Major distributors and platforms are leaning into right-sized spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and social-fueled campaigns that position genre titles into all-audience topics.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The genre has solidified as the most reliable option in release plans, a space that can surge when it performs and still safeguard the liability when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reassured buyers that lean-budget pictures can galvanize mainstream conversation, the following year continued the surge with director-led heat and stealth successes. The tailwind flowed into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and critical darlings demonstrated there is capacity for different modes, from legacy continuations to fresh IP that translate worldwide. The aggregate for 2026 is a slate that feels more orchestrated than usual across the field, with planned clusters, a mix of household franchises and novel angles, and a reinvigorated priority on big-screen windows that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Buyers contend the genre now serves as a utility player on the schedule. The genre can debut on numerous frames, offer a simple premise for teasers and platform-native cuts, and outstrip with fans that come out on Thursday nights and hold through the second weekend if the film lands. Emerging from a production delay era, the 2026 cadence exhibits faith in that equation. The year gets underway with a crowded January band, then taps spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while carving room for a autumn stretch that reaches into late October and into November. The map also illustrates the increasing integration of specialty distributors and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, generate chatter, and go nationwide at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is brand curation across ongoing universes and legacy franchises. Studios are not just pushing another installment. They are seeking to position story carry-over with a premium feel, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that threads a new installment to a classic era. At the concurrently, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are embracing real-world builds, practical gags and place-driven backdrops. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a lively combination of brand comfort and novelty, which is how the films export.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount defines the early cadence with two prominent titles that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the front, steering it as both a succession moment and a DNA-forward character-first story. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a throwback-friendly strategy without going over the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Look for a marketing run driven by classic imagery, character previews, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will feature. As a summer counter-slot, this one will build large awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick redirects to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three discrete releases. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is elegant, grief-rooted, and premise-first: a grieving man installs an digital partner that turns into a harmful mate. The date lines it up at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s promo team likely to bring back odd public stunts and quick hits that hybridizes longing and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the first look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s releases are presented as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a later creative that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date opens a lane to saturate 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has consistently shown that a raw, prosthetic-heavy approach can feel high-value on a moderate cost. Look for a grime-caked summer horror shock that pushes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio books two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, preserving a dependable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is presenting as a reimagined 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 focus to serve both fans and casuals. The fall slot lets Sony to build artifacts around environmental design, and practical creature work, 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 carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in historical precision and period language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The imprint has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is glowing.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films feed copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that elevates both initial urgency and sub growth in the tail. Prime Video stitches together licensed titles with world buys and small theatrical windows when the data points to it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using featured rows, holiday hubs, and featured rows to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix keeps flexible about internal projects and festival additions, confirming horror entries closer to drop and positioning as event drops go-lives with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and fast windowing that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has proven amenable to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 lane with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is tight: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, modernized for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the ferocious series and Get More Info for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has helped for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception prompts. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited runs to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchises versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate bends toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to sell each entry as a new angle. Paramount is bringing forward character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a emerging director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the cast-creatives package is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years outline the method. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that honored streaming windows did not prevent a dual release from succeeding when the brand was sticky. In 2024, auteur craft horror surged in large-format rooms. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they rotate perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues 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 sequentially, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

Craft and creative trends

The shop talk behind these films suggest a continued turn toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that centers atmosphere and fear rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead press and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and sparks shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a self-aware reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster realization and design, which align with fan conventions and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that center hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid big-brand pushes. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tonal variety opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late summer into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a early fall window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited pre-release reveals that put concept first.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s digital partner shifts into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 unyielding boss push to survive on a isolated island as the hierarchy flips and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: marquee survival piece 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 contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to chill, based on Cronin’s hands-on craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting story that teases the chill of a child’s shaky point of view. Rating: pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that teases present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 surges, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family anchored to residual nightmares. Rating: TBD. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A new start designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on classic survival-horror tone over action spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: closely held. Rating: forthcoming. Production: ongoing. 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-precise speech and primordial menace. Rating: awaiting classification. 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: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026, why now

Three workable forces drive this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or re-slotted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and leaner 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, precision scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where modest-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 press those advantages. 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. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value 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 justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundscape, 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is name recognition where it counts, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.