Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across leading streamers

A unnerving spectral suspense story from creator / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an timeless curse when foreigners become puppets in a cursed struggle. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a intense account of resistance and primeval wickedness that will alter terror storytelling this cool-weather season. Guided by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and shadowy tale follows five teens who are stirred imprisoned in a far-off dwelling under the unfriendly dominion of Kyra, a female presence claimed by a time-worn biblical demon. Prepare to be enthralled by a narrative event that weaves together bone-deep fear with biblical origins, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a legendary foundation in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is redefined when the presences no longer come outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This illustrates the most primal corner of the group. The result is a enthralling inner struggle where the plotline becomes a perpetual confrontation between divinity and wickedness.


In a haunting wild, five characters find themselves imprisoned under the fiendish dominion and control of a uncanny being. As the survivors becomes unable to withstand her influence, left alone and preyed upon by entities impossible to understand, they are driven to deal with their worst nightmares while the countdown without pause strikes toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety builds and partnerships shatter, pressuring each individual to reflect on their self and the notion of freedom of choice itself. The intensity intensify with every beat, delivering a horror experience that harmonizes mystical fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to explore deep fear, an darkness born of forgotten ages, influencing emotional vulnerability, and questioning a darkness that questions who we are when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra demanded embodying something past sanity. She is clueless until the haunting manifests, and that transition is haunting because it is so close.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—allowing horror lovers around the globe can watch this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first trailer, which has earned over 100K plays.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, bringing the film to international horror buffs.


Join this unforgettable fall into madness. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to face these chilling revelations about inner darkness.


For featurettes, set experiences, and reveals from behind the lens, follow @YACFilm across your socials and visit the movie’s homepage.





Current horror’s decisive shift: 2025 in focus U.S. release slate Mixes ancient-possession motifs, microbudget gut-punches, stacked beside series shake-ups

Beginning with pressure-cooker survival tales grounded in scriptural legend to IP renewals in concert with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is emerging as the most textured paired with carefully orchestrated year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. top-tier distributors lay down anchors by way of signature titles, simultaneously streaming platforms prime the fall with new perspectives and archetypal fear. In parallel, festival-forward creators is catching the echoes of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The fall stretch is the proving field, but this year, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, thus 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s schedule fires the first shot with a statement play: a reconceived Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a sharp contemporary setting. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. dated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Helmed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

By late summer, the Warner lot sets loose the finale inside its trusty horror universe: 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. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson returns, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: old school creep, trauma as text, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The bar is raised this go, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The next entry deepens the tale, broadens the animatronic terror cast, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It opens in December, pinning the winter close.

Platform Plays: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, 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 dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. That is a savvy move. No overinflated mythology. No franchise baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are more runway than museum.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Brands: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, with Francis Lawrence directing, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror comes roaring back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. 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 brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The 2026 genre year to come: next chapters, fresh concepts, plus A brimming Calendar designed for Scares

Dek The upcoming scare season lines up up front with a January bottleneck, following that flows through the warm months, and carrying into the winter holidays, fusing IP strength, new voices, and shrewd release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are committing to efficient budgets, theatrical leads, and shareable marketing that frame these pictures into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The horror marketplace has turned into the bankable release in studio slates, a vertical that can break out when it resonates and still buffer the drawdown when it doesn’t. After 2023 signaled to strategy teams that low-to-mid budget horror vehicles can dominate social chatter, 2024 sustained momentum with director-led heat and under-the-radar smashes. The tailwind translated to the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and prestige plays highlighted there is an opening for diverse approaches, from returning installments to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a schedule that feels more orchestrated than usual across companies, with obvious clusters, a harmony of legacy names and novel angles, and a renewed emphasis on box-office windows that drive downstream revenue on premium rental and home streaming.

Schedulers say the space now slots in as a plug-and-play option on the rollout map. Horror can bow on most weekends, deliver a tight logline for ad units and short-form placements, and outperform with patrons that come out on opening previews and hold through the second weekend if the entry connects. Following a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 plan telegraphs confidence in that equation. The year kicks off with a thick January corridor, then plants flags in spring and early summer for balance, while making space for a late-year stretch that pushes into Halloween and into post-Halloween. The layout also reflects the tightening integration of specialized imprints and platforms that can develop over weeks, spark evangelism, and go nationwide at the proper time.

Another broad trend is IP cultivation across interlocking continuities and veteran brands. Studios are not just mounting another next film. They are looking to package threaded continuity with a occasion, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a new vibe or a casting move that anchors a next entry to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the most watched originals are championing practical craft, on-set effects and distinct locales. That blend provides the 2026 slate a healthy mix of assurance and newness, which is what works overseas.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the spine, framing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a return-to-roots character-forward chapter. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a legacy-leaning mode without replaying the last two entries’ sibling arc. Expect a marketing push driven by brand visuals, character previews, and a two-beat trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will stress. As a summer alternative, this one will seek wide buzz through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever owns the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three separate pushes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is straightforward, loss-driven, and premise-first: a grieving man purchases an machine companion that evolves into a deadly partner. The date slots it at the front of a heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to recreate uncanny-valley stunts and snackable content that threads longing and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a final title to become an earned moment closer to the initial tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s work are treated as marquee events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second beat that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame lets the studio to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, practical-first style can feel cinematic on a lean spend. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror hit that maximizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio sets two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, keeping a bankable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is describing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both longtime followers and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around environmental design, and practical creature work, elements that can drive deluxe auditorium demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by immersive craft and period speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. The imprint has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform tactics for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre entries window into copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a pacing that optimizes both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with global acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in back-catalog play, using prominent placements, Halloween hubs, and staff picks to maximize the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps flexible about first-party entries and festival buys, locking in horror entries closer to drop and eventizing arrivals with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes have a peek here on a staged of targeted theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that converts WOM to subscribers. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a per-project basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to secure select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation surges.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is curating a 2026 runway with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is direct: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, upgraded for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a theatrical-first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday dates to scale. That positioning has been successful for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception warrants. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using boutique theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their audience.

Brands and originals

By weight, 2026 is weighted toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on household recognition. The potential drawback, as ever, is diminishing returns. The operating solution is to frame each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is foregrounding character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a European tilt from a emerging director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the team and cast is grounded enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years help explain the logic. In 2023, a exclusive window model that preserved streaming windows did not deter a day-date move from paying off when the brand was potent. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror punched above its weight in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reorient 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, permits marketing to cross-link entries through cast and motif and to continue assets in field without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The creative meetings behind this slate hint at a continued shift toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-true language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a tease that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for red-band excess, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta pivot that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster realization and design, which fit with convention activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that sing on PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is loaded. 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 quiet contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the variety of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Q1 into Q2 build the summer base. Scream 7 comes February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to 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 light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a late-September window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited information drops that center concept over reveals.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can play the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s synthetic partner turns into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 rugged island as the control balance inverts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to nightmare, based on Cronin’s tactile craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: 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 piece that threads the dread through a young child’s volatile inner lens. Rating: to be announced. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed and A-list fronted eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A genre lampoon that skewers of-the-moment horror beats and true crime preoccupations. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography set for 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 detonates, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new household linked to lingering terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-core horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBD. Production: underway. 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-specific language and elemental dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three pragmatic forces frame this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-slotted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming drops. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, soundcraft, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is IP strength where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the screams sell the seats.