Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a spine tingling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across major platforms

A blood-curdling supernatural nightmare movie from literary architect / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an archaic curse when outsiders become instruments in a diabolical conflict. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching journey of perseverance and forgotten curse that will reconstruct fear-driven cinema this ghoul season. Realized by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and immersive cinema piece follows five individuals who find themselves imprisoned in a far-off shack under the aggressive rule of Kyra, a central character haunted by a legendary Old Testament spirit. Get ready to be gripped by a immersive spectacle that fuses primitive horror with mythic lore, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a classic fixture in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is turned on its head when the entities no longer emerge from elsewhere, but rather from their core. This depicts the grimmest side of the protagonists. The result is a harrowing internal warfare where the plotline becomes a intense clash between divinity and wickedness.


In a abandoned outland, five teens find themselves marooned under the possessive grip and possession of a uncanny entity. As the youths becomes incapacitated to resist her control, detached and tormented by spirits mind-shattering, they are made to encounter their inner demons while the time ruthlessly winds toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia deepens and links collapse, requiring each person to question their personhood and the idea of self-determination itself. The intensity intensify with every tick, delivering a fear-soaked story that fuses otherworldly suspense with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to channel raw dread, an presence beyond time, manifesting in fragile psyche, and dealing with a entity that challenges autonomy when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra was about accessing something more primal than sorrow. She is innocent until the control shifts, and that evolution is bone-chilling because it is so unshielded.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for streaming beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—allowing watchers globally can engage with this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its release of trailer #1, which has racked up over massive response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, giving access to the movie to scare fans abroad.


Do not miss this mind-warping path of possession. Watch *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to acknowledge these ghostly lessons about human nature.


For bonus footage, special features, and reveals from behind the lens, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across online outlets and visit the official digital haunt.





American horror’s watershed moment: 2025 across markets domestic schedule Mixes legend-infused possession, indie terrors, and returning-series thunder

From life-or-death fear steeped in near-Eastern lore and stretching into canon extensions plus focused festival visions, 2025 is coalescing into the richest along with tactically planned year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. leading studios plant stakes across the year via recognizable brands, simultaneously digital services flood the fall with fresh voices alongside old-world menace. On the festival side, the independent cohort is propelled by the echoes of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, but this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are exacting, so 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s schedule opens the year with an audacious swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Steered by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline unveils the final movement inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson re boards, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma in the foreground, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This run ups the stakes, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, speaking to teens and older millennials. It opens in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. 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 minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and directed 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. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No bloated mythology. No brand fatigue. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

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

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading 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.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, guided 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.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

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

Body horror reemerges
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Season Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new chiller lineup: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, And A loaded Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek The fresh horror cycle lines up from the jump with a January crush, following that runs through June and July, and carrying into the festive period, weaving brand equity, inventive spins, and tactical counterprogramming. The major players are relying on right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that pivot these offerings into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

The genre has become the predictable counterweight in annual schedules, a segment that can scale when it performs and still buffer the downside when it under-delivers. After 2023 reconfirmed for decision-makers that modestly budgeted chillers can own social chatter, 2024 carried the beat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The upswing carried into 2025, where re-entries and prestige plays demonstrated there is a lane for varied styles, from brand follow-ups to original features that scale internationally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a calendar that presents tight coordination across companies, with mapped-out bands, a combination of established brands and fresh ideas, and a refocused eye on release windows that feed downstream value on paid VOD and SVOD.

Buyers contend the genre now serves as a plug-and-play option on the calendar. The genre can arrive on many corridors, supply a tight logline for previews and TikTok spots, and lead with fans that line up on preview nights and maintain momentum through the next pass if the picture fires. In the wake of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 pattern indicates conviction in that logic. The slate kicks off with a crowded January block, then plants flags in spring and early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a fall run that extends to the fright window and afterwards. The map also spotlights the continuing integration of indie arms and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, build word of mouth, and widen at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is brand curation across ongoing universes and established properties. The players are not just greenlighting another installment. They are aiming to frame continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a logo package that flags a new vibe or a ensemble decision that links a latest entry to a heyday. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the marquee originals are prioritizing on-set craft, practical gags and place-driven backdrops. That alloy delivers 2026 a healthy mix of brand comfort and freshness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two high-profile pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the heart, marketing it as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward character piece. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a throwback-friendly bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Watch for a push stacked with classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a rollout cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a summer relief option, this one will hunt mass reach through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick turns to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that shifts into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a front-loaded month, with marketing at Universal likely to renew uncanny-valley stunts and quick hits that mixes intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title drop to become an attention spike closer to the first look. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele projects are treated as creative events, with a teaser that holds back and a subsequent trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor offers Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, practical-first approach can feel prestige on a lean spend. Position this as a splatter summer horror rush that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, maintaining a proven supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is presenting as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around setting detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can accelerate PLF interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions 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 defined imp source by textural authenticity and archaic language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus’s team has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is supportive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s genre entries flow to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that enhances both opening-weekend urgency and trial spikes in the after-window. Prime Video pairs licensed titles with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog engagement, using timely promos, spooky hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about original films and festival deals, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and making event-like go-lives with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a tiered of selective theatrical runs and speedy platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to secure select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 lane with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is simple: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, upgraded for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the fall weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, escorting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then working the holiday corridor to go wider. That positioning has delivered for arthouse horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception justifies. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subs.

Brands and originals

By volume, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap brand equity. The question, as ever, is brand wear. The practical approach is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is bringing forward character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a emerging director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the configuration is recognizable enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Comparable trends from recent years illuminate the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not preclude a same-day experiment from winning when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in premium formats. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they alter lens and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, gives leeway to marketing to connect the chapters through character spine and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The director conversations behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued shift toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that spotlights atmosphere and fear rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and medieval diction, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft coverage before rolling out a first look 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 engineered for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta inflection that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature craft and set design, which work nicely for convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel must-have. Look for trailers that accent disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in big rooms.

Annual flow

January is stacked. 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 quiet contrast amid marquee brands. The month concludes 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 real, but the spread of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Late Q1 and spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited advance reveals that center concept over reveals.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can play the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s DNA. 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 mourning man’s synthetic partner becomes something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 battle to survive on a uninhabited island as the pecking order flips and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to terror, anchored by Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting piece that frames the panic through a little one’s unreliable perspective. Rating: to be announced. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that targets today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further widens again, with a young family snared by past horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on pure survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: pending. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBD. Production: continuing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 time-true diction and elemental fear. Rating: TBD. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why this year, why now

Three operational forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-slotted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage meme-ready beats from test screenings, precision scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will share space across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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-hit hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 austere, 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 gain momentum, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sonics, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, guard the secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.