Antediluvian Terror Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling shocker, landing October 2025 across global platforms

This haunting supernatural thriller from literary architect / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an prehistoric fear when guests become victims in a diabolical ritual. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing tale of overcoming and archaic horror that will reconstruct fear-driven cinema this harvest season. Produced by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and immersive feature follows five characters who find themselves imprisoned in a remote cottage under the malevolent control of Kyra, a young woman claimed by a biblical-era sacred-era entity. Anticipate to be absorbed by a cinematic adventure that integrates bodily fright with spiritual backstory, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a enduring foundation in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is twisted when the dark entities no longer originate beyond the self, but rather from deep inside. This mirrors the grimmest part of all involved. The result is a bone-chilling spiritual tug-of-war where the intensity becomes a brutal clash between right and wrong.


In a desolate outland, five souls find themselves imprisoned under the malevolent presence and infestation of a mysterious entity. As the team becomes submissive to resist her command, left alone and stalked by spirits impossible to understand, they are confronted to deal with their greatest panics while the clock relentlessly winds toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia swells and associations collapse, forcing each participant to doubt their being and the notion of conscious will itself. The threat magnify with every tick, delivering a chilling narrative that intertwines mystical fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to channel instinctual horror, an malevolence beyond time, manipulating our weaknesses, and examining a darkness that challenges autonomy when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra meant channeling something beneath mortal despair. She is ignorant until the possession kicks in, and that pivot is haunting because it is so deep.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—offering users around the globe can face this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its first preview, which has collected over notable views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, extending the thrill to thrill-seekers globally.


Experience this mind-warping journey into fear. Confront *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to see these fearful discoveries about the soul.


For featurettes, behind-the-scenes content, and reveals straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursed across your socials and visit youngandcursed.com.





Contemporary horror’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 U.S. lineup melds primeval-possession lore, independent shockers, paired with franchise surges

Beginning with pressure-cooker survival tales infused with biblical myth and including IP renewals and cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 stands to become the genre’s most multifaceted along with precision-timed year for the modern era.

Call it full, but it is also focused. studio powerhouses plant stakes across the year via recognizable brands, while premium streamers saturate the fall with new voices together with ancestral chills. On another front, indie storytellers is buoyed by the carry from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are calculated, and 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

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

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 accelerates.

Universal starts the year with an audacious swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a modern-day environment. Led by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Eli Craig directs starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner Bros. banner bows the concluding entry from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the outline is tried, 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 steps in next. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time the stakes climb, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The continuation widens the legend, thickens the animatronic pantheon, reaching teens and game grownups. It arrives in December, locking down the winter tail.

Digital Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a forensic chill anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a tight space body horror vignette anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also rising is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to 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. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It reads as sharp positioning. No bloated canon. No brand fatigue. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

What to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The 2026 terror slate: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, And A hectic Calendar calibrated for frights

Dek The fresh genre slate crams up front with a January glut, after that stretches through peak season, and well into the December corridor, mixing brand heft, original angles, and calculated alternatives. Studios with streamers are doubling down on tight budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and viral-minded pushes that pivot these releases into mainstream chatter.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has turned into the steady swing in studio slates, a genre that can scale when it resonates and still cushion the losses when it misses. After 2023 signaled to buyers that disciplined-budget chillers can command the discourse, the following year continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and quiet over-performers. The run extended into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and prestige plays made clear there is space for many shades, from brand follow-ups to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a slate that is strikingly coherent across the field, with obvious clusters, a pairing of household franchises and fresh ideas, and a recommitted priority on box-office windows that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Buyers contend the genre now serves as a plug-and-play option on the calendar. The genre can kick off on a wide range of weekends, supply a clear pitch for previews and TikTok spots, and lead with fans that line up on preview nights and hold through the next weekend if the feature hits. Post a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 setup signals trust in that dynamic. The year commences with a heavy January corridor, then taps spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while making space for a fall cadence that reaches into the Halloween corridor and past Halloween. The arrangement also illustrates the continuing integration of indie arms and SVOD players that can platform and widen, spark evangelism, and expand at the right moment.

A second macro trend is brand strategy across linked properties and legacy franchises. Major shops are not just mounting another follow-up. They are shaping as lineage with a headline quality, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a new vibe or a casting pivot that reconnects a new installment to a vintage era. At the in tandem, the visionaries behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing physical effects work, real effects and location-forward worlds. That fusion affords the 2026 slate a confident blend of comfort and novelty, which is what works overseas.

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

Paramount sets the tone early with two high-profile titles that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the center, angling it as both a succession moment and a classic-mode character-focused installment. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture signals a roots-evoking bent without recycling the last two entries’ family thread. Count on a promo wave stacked with iconic art, character previews, and a two-beat trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will double down on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will seek wide appeal through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format permitting quick turns to whatever shapes the conversation that spring.

Universal has three discrete strategies. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is elegant, soulful, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man purchases an digital partner that escalates into a lethal partner. The date positions it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s promo team likely to bring back uncanny live moments and short-form creative that mixes longing and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a name unveil to become an event moment closer to the teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele titles are positioned as signature events, with a minimalist tease and a second trailer wave that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween runway gives the studio room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean 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 heads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy method can feel big on a controlled budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror shot that embraces international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, holding a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is billing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both loyalists and general audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build materials around universe detail, and creature design, elements that can lift premium booking interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in meticulous craft and period speech, this time set against lycan legends. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is positive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre entries feed copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a cadence that fortifies both FOMO and sign-up spikes in the downstream. Prime Video will mix third-party pickups with global acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library curation, using in-app campaigns, fright rows, and curated strips to prolong the run on the annual genre haul. Netflix plays opportunist about original films and festival deals, finalizing horror entries near launch and positioning as event drops premieres with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a laddered of selective theatrical runs and prompt platform moves that translates talk to trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a situational basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to pick up select projects with recognized filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for retention when the genre conversation ramps.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 sequence 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 angle is direct: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, elevated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a big-screen first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the fall weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through select festivals if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas window to broaden. That positioning has proved effective for prestige horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using select theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By tilt, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness household recognition. The question, as ever, is brand erosion. The pragmatic answer is to present each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a continental coloration from a buzzed-about director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the team and cast is comforting enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night crowds.

The last three-year set contextualize the plan. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that observed windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from performing when the brand was powerful. In 2024, art-forward horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they shift POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, creates space for marketing to link the films through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft conversations behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued move toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that leans on unease and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that withholds plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta recalibration that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature design and production design, which fit with fan conventions and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel primary. Look for trailers that elevate pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that benefit on big speakers.

How the year maps out

January is busy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid marquee brands. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the menu of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Early-year through spring load in summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Back half into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s digital partner shifts into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: atmospheric 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 demanding boss fight to survive on a far-flung island as the hierarchy shifts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to terror, anchored by Cronin’s on-set craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal 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 closed-door haunting scenario that teases the dread of a child’s fragile senses. Rating: forthcoming. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-built and marquee-led supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that targets of-the-moment horror beats and true crime preoccupations. Rating: pending. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 flares, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further widens again, with a different family bound to old terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-core horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving forward. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 raw menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 and why now

Three hands-on forces frame this lineup. First, production that paused or shuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate repeatable beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, clearing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will compete across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where value-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 use those gaps. 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing 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 are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundcraft, and picture 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

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is recognizable IP where it plays, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 see here 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, cut sharp trailers, keep secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.