Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on global platforms

An spine-tingling metaphysical shockfest from screenwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an primeval malevolence when unfamiliar people become pawns in a malevolent experiment. Available on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping depiction of resistance and mythic evil that will redefine the horror genre this spooky time. Crafted by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and shadowy story follows five teens who awaken trapped in a off-grid house under the malignant will of Kyra, a female presence inhabited by a 2,000-year-old holy text monster. Arm yourself to be absorbed by a narrative adventure that merges raw fear with legendary tales, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a legendary narrative in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is twisted when the demons no longer come outside their bodies, but rather inside them. This depicts the most hidden layer of each of them. The result is a harrowing emotional conflict where the intensity becomes a ongoing conflict between innocence and sin.


In a forsaken no-man's-land, five teens find themselves trapped under the possessive rule and domination of a shadowy woman. As the victims becomes paralyzed to oppose her grasp, isolated and followed by creatures impossible to understand, they are obligated to battle their worst nightmares while the clock without pity draws closer toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion amplifies and ties shatter, coercing each figure to rethink their existence and the structure of volition itself. The stakes rise with every passing moment, delivering a fear-soaked story that merges occult fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to dig into core terror, an threat born of forgotten ages, emerging via fragile psyche, and testing a spirit that tests the soul when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant evoking something darker than pain. She is ignorant until the invasion happens, and that evolution is haunting because it is so intimate.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—ensuring streamers from coast to coast can watch this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has received over 100K plays.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to a worldwide audience.


Experience this visceral trip into the unknown. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to survive these fearful discoveries about the soul.


For director insights, filmmaker commentary, and social posts via the production team, follow @YACMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit the movie’s homepage.





The horror genre’s pivotal crossroads: the 2025 cycle domestic schedule interlaces legend-infused possession, Indie Shockers, stacked beside franchise surges

Moving from endurance-driven terror rooted in scriptural legend as well as returning series plus cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 stands to become horror’s most layered in tandem with tactically planned year in a decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. top-tier distributors lock in tentpoles by way of signature titles, even as streamers prime the fall with first-wave breakthroughs plus mythic dread. On the festival side, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the uplift from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, notably this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are targeted, thus 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: The Return of Prestige Fear

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline begins the calendar with a statement play: a reimagined Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a sharp contemporary setting. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Slated for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline drops the final chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re teams, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retrograde shiver, trauma in the foreground, and a cold supernatural calculus. Here the stakes rise, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, thickens the animatronic pantheon, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It hits in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Originals: Economy, maximum dread

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a tight space body horror vignette pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is destined for a fall landing.

Next comes Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative featuring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Shaped and helmed 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 darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No overstuffed canon. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Franchise Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Dials to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Season Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The oncoming Horror season: next chapters, non-franchise titles, in tandem with A jammed Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek: The upcoming scare year crams from day one with a January wave, subsequently unfolds through peak season, and well into the holiday stretch, mixing marquee clout, new concepts, and well-timed calendar placement. The major players are focusing on lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and social-driven marketing that position these pictures into water-cooler talk.

How the genre looks for 2026

The field has solidified as the dependable lever in release plans, a category that can grow when it performs and still cushion the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for greenlighters that responsibly budgeted scare machines can drive pop culture, the following year continued the surge with director-led heat and surprise hits. The trend flowed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and prestige plays made clear there is capacity for a spectrum, from continued chapters to director-led originals that translate worldwide. The result for 2026 is a programming that reads highly synchronized across companies, with mapped-out bands, a spread of familiar brands and untested plays, and a renewed emphasis on box-office windows that drive downstream revenue on premium rental and subscription services.

Executives say the genre now works like a schedule utility on the calendar. Horror can debut on numerous frames, provide a clear pitch for creative and platform-native cuts, and lead with audiences that turn out on advance nights and stick through the next pass if the entry satisfies. In the wake of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 setup demonstrates comfort in that logic. The calendar begins with a heavy January corridor, then leans on spring and early summer for alternate plays, while leaving room for a late-year stretch that flows toward holiday-adjacent weekends and afterwards. The arrangement also features the ongoing integration of specialized imprints and OTT outlets that can launch in limited release, fuel WOM, and expand at the proper time.

A parallel macro theme is legacy care across unified worlds and storied titles. Studios are not just turning out another sequel. They are setting up lore continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title treatment that telegraphs a recalibrated tone or a casting choice that links a new entry to a original cycle. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the marquee originals are championing in-camera technique, in-camera effects and site-specific worlds. That fusion hands 2026 a smart balance of assurance and newness, which is the formula for international play.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount leads early with two centerpiece entries 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 focus, setting it up as both a baton pass and a classic-mode character-forward chapter. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the narrative stance announces a fan-service aware campaign without retreading the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Count on a promo wave built on signature symbols, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will double down on. As a summer contrast play, this one will build large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick reframes to whatever owns pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tight, grief-rooted, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an digital partner that evolves into a lethal partner. The date lines it up at the front of a thick month, with marketing at Universal likely to bring back eerie street stunts and snackable content that hybridizes romance and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title reveal to become an fan moment closer to the early tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s releases are marketed as event films, with a teaser that reveals little and a later creative that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor allows Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has long shown that a gritty, hands-on effects approach can feel big on a lean spend. Look for a blood-and-grime summer horror hit that spotlights foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio launches two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, holding a proven supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is calling a fresh 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 explicit mandate to serve both fans and general audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build artifacts around mythos, and creature design, elements that can stoke premium booking interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on rigorous craft and linguistic texture, this time circling werewolf lore. The specialty arm has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is favorable.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre entries head to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a stair-step that boosts both FOMO and sign-up momentum in the later phase. Prime Video balances catalogue additions with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and featured rows to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix stays opportunistic about own-slate titles and festival additions, slotting horror entries closer to launch and coalescing around go-lives with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a one-two of precision theatrical plays and quick platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a per-project basis. The platform has signaled readiness to invest in select projects with acclaimed directors or A-list packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc navigate to this website with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is clear: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, refined for modern sonics 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 flagged a standard theatrical run for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, piloting the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday corridor to go wider. That positioning has proved effective for craft-driven horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception allows. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using boutique theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Brands and originals

By volume, 2026 leans toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The caveat, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to position each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is centering character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-flavored turn from a hot helmer. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the bundle is anchored enough to spark pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Three-year comps help explain the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that held distribution windows did not foreclose a day-and-date experiment from performing when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror popped in premium large format. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they reorient and grow scope. 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 two-step approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to relate entries through cast and motif and to hold creative in the market without pause points.

Craft and creative trends

The director conversations behind this slate indicate a continued turn toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that spotlights texture and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in trade spotlights and department features before rolling out a tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and gathers shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta inflection that centers an original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature and environment design, which work nicely for fan conventions and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that center disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar cadence

January is jammed. 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 atmospheric change-up amid headline IP. The month wraps 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 formidable, but the tonal variety opens lanes Source for all, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Early-year through spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a early fall window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a minimalist tease strategy and limited teasers that put concept first.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift card usage.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genome. 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 intelligent companion evolves into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

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 altering 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 demanding boss struggle to survive on a uninhabited island as the control balance flips and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to menace, rooted in Cronin’s hands-on craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. 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 domestic haunting setup that mediates the fear via a preteen’s uneven POV. Rating: rating pending. Production: wrapped. 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 participating creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that pokes at current genre trends and true-crime manias. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 ignites, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new household anchored to returning horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-first horror over action spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: closely held. Rating: pending. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 era-faithful speech and elemental fear. Rating: TBA. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three execution-level forces structure this lineup. First, production that paused or shuffled in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly 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, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest repeatable beats from test screenings, metered scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will stack across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on 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 stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where low-to-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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, audio design, and framing 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 Looks Exciting

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is franchise muscle where it helps, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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, edit tight trailers, keep secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.