Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on top streamers

A spine-tingling spectral terror film from narrative craftsman / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an archaic terror when drifters become proxies in a demonic experiment. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing story of continuance and age-old darkness that will revamp horror this season. Brought to life by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and atmospheric cinema piece follows five characters who are stirred sealed in a remote cottage under the sinister grip of Kyra, a haunted figure haunted by a antiquated biblical force. Anticipate to be captivated by a motion picture adventure that blends instinctive fear with spiritual backstory, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a iconic narrative in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is challenged when the monsters no longer descend from external sources, but rather from deep inside. This illustrates the shadowy corner of the protagonists. The result is a edge-of-seat psychological battle where the conflict becomes a brutal tug-of-war between innocence and sin.


In a haunting natural abyss, five individuals find themselves marooned under the unholy effect and spiritual invasion of a uncanny being. As the youths becomes paralyzed to fight her will, stranded and preyed upon by powers inconceivable, they are made to deal with their raw vulnerabilities while the deathwatch harrowingly strikes toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion grows and alliances splinter, demanding each person to reflect on their identity and the foundation of volition itself. The stakes climb with every short lapse, delivering a horror experience that connects otherworldly suspense with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to extract ancestral fear, an power that predates humanity, channeling itself through psychological breaks, and examining a presence that challenges autonomy when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra was centered on something unfamiliar to reason. She is insensitive until the haunting manifests, and that transformation is gut-wrenching because it is so raw.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for public screening beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that households across the world can get immersed in this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first trailer, which has attracted over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, presenting the nightmare to a worldwide audience.


Join this heart-stopping ride through nightmares. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to see these evil-rooted truths about the mind.


For sneak peeks, special features, and updates from the cast and crew, follow @YACMovie across platforms and visit youngandcursed.com.





American horror’s Turning Point: calendar year 2025 U.S. Slate weaves old-world possession, Indie Shockers, plus IP aftershocks

Kicking off with last-stand terror grounded in scriptural legend and extending to canon extensions together with acutely observed indies, 2025 is shaping up as the most textured as well as strategic year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Top studios plant stakes across the year with franchise anchors, even as subscription platforms crowd the fall with debut heat plus scriptural shivers. Across the art-house lane, indie storytellers is buoyed by the backdraft from a record 2024 festival run. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, though in this cycle, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are surgical, thus 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

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

The top end is active. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s slate kicks off the frame with a headline swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. targeting mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer eases, the WB camp launches the swan song of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: 70s style chill, trauma driven plotting, and a cold supernatural calculus. Here the stakes rise, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The return delves further into myth, stretches the animatronic parade, speaking to teens and older millennials. It lands in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Firsts: Slim budgets, major punch

While cinemas swing on series strength, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Series Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

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

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, guided 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 sharp marketing, it could translate to 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.

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror swings back
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

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

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn density and winter pivot

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The oncoming chiller calendar year ahead: follow-ups, standalone ideas, plus A loaded Calendar geared toward screams

Dek: The fresh terror year clusters in short order with a January traffic jam, from there unfolds through the warm months, and pushing into the December corridor, fusing brand equity, inventive spins, and calculated calendar placement. Studios and platforms are embracing smart costs, box-office-first windows, and social-driven marketing that elevate these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

How the genre looks for 2026

The genre has become the sturdy option in release plans, a genre that can lift when it clicks and still buffer the downside when it fails to connect. After 2023 reconfirmed for decision-makers that disciplined-budget shockers can galvanize pop culture, the following year continued the surge with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The tailwind extended into the 2025 frame, where revivals and critical darlings signaled there is room for several lanes, from franchise continuations to original one-offs that travel well. The result for 2026 is a programming that reads highly synchronized across companies, with mapped-out bands, a balance of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a reinvigorated stance on theatrical windows that fuel later windows on premium on-demand and digital services.

Planners observe the space now behaves like a schedule utility on the distribution slate. Horror can bow on virtually any date, create a simple premise for creative and TikTok spots, and outperform with viewers that lean in on advance nights and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the offering satisfies. In the wake of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 layout underscores trust in that approach. The slate begins with a heavy January schedule, then taps spring and early summer for balance, while holding room for a autumn stretch that reaches into the Halloween frame and past Halloween. The calendar also features the increasing integration of specialty distributors and streamers that can develop over weeks, create conversation, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across shared universes and heritage properties. Studios are not just mounting another entry. They are seeking to position lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting move that reconnects a upcoming film to a original cycle. At the simultaneously, the helmers behind the top original plays are embracing in-camera technique, physical gags and specific settings. That alloy delivers 2026 a solid mix of comfort and newness, which is what works overseas.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount defines the early cadence with two headline pushes that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, steering it as both a relay and a origin-leaning character-focused installment. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance signals a legacy-leaning bent without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign centered on classic imagery, character spotlights, and a tiered teaser plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a summer contrast play, this one will drive four-quadrant chatter through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format permitting quick pivots to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three differentiated entries. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is clean, tragic, and easily pitched: a grieving man sets up an synthetic partner that becomes a fatal companion. The date positions it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s marketing likely to replay off-kilter promo beats and short-cut promos that interweaves affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up 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 listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the first look. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele titles are set up as auteur events, with a hinting teaser and a second wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-month date opens a lane to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, practical-effects forward style can feel premium on a middle budget. Look for a splatter summer horror jolt that leans hard into global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, extending a consistent supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is selling as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both devotees and novices. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around mythos, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive premium screens 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 advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in historical precision and linguistic texture, this time orbiting lycan myth. The imprint has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s slate window into copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a sequence that amplifies both first-week urgency and subscription bumps in the after-window. Prime Video pairs outside acquisitions with global acquisitions and limited cinema engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in archive usage, using curated hubs, spooky hubs, and collection rows to keep attention on 2026 genre cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about original films and festival acquisitions, dating horror entries near launch and elevating as drops premieres with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a hybrid of limited theatrical footprints and prompt platform moves that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a selective basis. The platform has been willing to purchase select projects with award winners or star-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly activity when the genre conversation surges.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is curating a 2026 sequence with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is direct: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, reimagined for great post to read modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the September weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas window to expand. That positioning has helped for arthouse horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception encourages. Do not be surprised by 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 hand in hand, using boutique theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their user base.

Known brands versus new stories

By tilt, the 2026 slate bends toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The trade-off, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to position each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is elevating core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-accented approach from a emerging director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the assembly is known enough to build pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Rolling three-year comps help explain the approach. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that honored streaming windows did not foreclose a same-day experiment from working when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror outperformed in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reorient and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to relate entries through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without dead zones.

Craft and creative trends

The creative meetings behind these films forecast a continued lean toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that highlights aura and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and technical spotlights before rolling imp source out a preview that withholds plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta recalibration that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature execution and sets, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that spotlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is loaded. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid big-brand pushes. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tonal variety creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Pre-summer months stage summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a bridge slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a minimalist tease strategy and limited teasers that put concept first.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s algorithmic partner escalates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 abrasive boss struggle to survive on a remote island as the pecking order upends and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to menace, based on Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting narrative that twists the horror of a child’s unreliable perceptions. Rating: TBD. Production: wrapped. 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 back in creative roles. Logline: {A satire sequel that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime buzz. Rating: to be announced. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 erupts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new household tethered to ancient dread. Rating: pending. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward pure survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. 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: unrevealed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBA. Production: moving forward. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 lands now

Three operational forces define this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic 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, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage shareable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, creating valuable space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where lean-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 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 build month to month, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, soundscape, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand gravity where needed, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, guard the secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.