Mythic Horror Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising shocker, arriving October 2025 on major streaming services

One spine-tingling occult terror film from writer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an archaic force when foreigners become subjects in a malevolent trial. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing tale of resilience and mythic evil that will revamp horror this harvest season. Directed by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and eerie fearfest follows five characters who snap to trapped in a cut-off lodge under the sinister influence of Kyra, a mysterious girl dominated by a 2,000-year-old biblical demon. Ready yourself to be captivated by a immersive spectacle that combines bodily fright with arcane tradition, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a long-standing concept in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is inverted when the dark entities no longer appear outside their bodies, but rather from their core. This mirrors the malevolent element of the cast. The result is a edge-of-seat mind game where the events becomes a relentless conflict between purity and corruption.


In a haunting outland, five teens find themselves marooned under the malicious presence and curse of a elusive being. As the team becomes vulnerable to oppose her grasp, marooned and stalked by entities unnamable, they are thrust to acknowledge their inner demons while the clock harrowingly moves toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion amplifies and ties shatter, urging each cast member to examine their character and the integrity of volition itself. The intensity amplify with every tick, delivering a horror experience that merges spiritual fright with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to awaken ancestral fear, an power rooted in antiquity, manipulating our fears, and questioning a evil that dismantles free will when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra was about accessing something deeper than fear. She is insensitive until the entity awakens, and that metamorphosis is eerie because it is so visceral.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for worldwide release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing watchers worldwide can get immersed in this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its initial teaser, which has earned over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, making the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Avoid skipping this unforgettable fall into madness. Join *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to explore these dark realities about the soul.


For cast commentary, director cuts, and insider scoops from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YACMovie across online outlets and visit our film’s homepage.





American horror’s pivotal crossroads: the year 2025 stateside slate Mixes primeval-possession lore, underground frights, plus legacy-brand quakes

Ranging from fight-to-live nightmare stories steeped in ancient scripture through to canon extensions as well as pointed art-house angles, 2025 looks like the most textured plus tactically planned year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. leading studios hold down the year with known properties, simultaneously SVOD players flood the fall with first-wave breakthroughs alongside ancient terrors. On the independent axis, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is surfing the echoes from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, distinctly in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are exacting, which means 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige fear returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s pipeline begins the calendar with a marquee bet: a reconceived Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. arriving mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Helmed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

Toward summer’s end, the WB camp delivers the closing chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

After that, The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: 70s style chill, trauma as theme, and eerie supernatural logic. The stakes escalate here, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, stretches the animatronic parade, speaking to teens and older millennials. It opens in December, securing the winter cap.

Platform Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a room scale body horror descent anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

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

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Long Running Lines: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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

Key Trends

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forward View: Autumn density and winter pivot

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 must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The oncoming Horror calendar year ahead: follow-ups, standalone ideas, and also A Crowded Calendar optimized for frights

Dek: The new scare year builds at the outset with a January bottleneck, thereafter carries through summer corridors, and carrying into the festive period, mixing brand equity, untold stories, and well-timed release strategy. Studios with streamers are prioritizing cost discipline, theatrical leads, and shareable marketing that shape these films into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has shown itself to be the surest tool in distribution calendars, a segment that can grow when it clicks and still buffer the risk when it doesn’t. After 2023 reassured strategy teams that cost-conscious entries can drive the zeitgeist, 2024 held pace with festival-darling auteurs and slow-burn breakouts. The upswing pushed into 2025, where reawakened brands and arthouse crossovers showed there is room for many shades, from returning installments to one-and-done originals that perform internationally. The end result for the 2026 slate is a programming that looks unusually coordinated across the major shops, with obvious clusters, a combination of brand names and new concepts, and a refocused attention on theater exclusivity that power the aftermarket on paid VOD and digital services.

Executives say the category now performs as a utility player on the schedule. The genre can debut on most weekends, create a grabby hook for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and exceed norms with crowds that appear on opening previews and hold through the sophomore frame if the picture pays off. Exiting a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 plan signals trust in that playbook. The calendar gets underway with a heavy January window, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while holding room for a late-year stretch that runs into holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The program also illustrates the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and home platforms that can launch in limited release, generate chatter, and move wide at the right moment.

Another broad trend is IP cultivation across shared IP webs and legacy franchises. The companies are not just greenlighting another installment. They are seeking to position story carry-over with a headline quality, whether that is a brandmark that signals a re-angled tone or a talent selection that threads a incoming chapter to a vintage era. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are championing on-set craft, practical gags and distinct locales. That mix produces the 2026 slate a healthy mix of recognition and novelty, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile releases that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the spine, presenting it as both a baton pass and a rootsy character-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach indicates a classic-referencing framework without replaying the last two entries’ sibling arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive anchored in brand visuals, first images of characters, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will stress. As a summer contrast play, this one will go after large awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick redirects to whatever defines the discourse that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is crisp, melancholic, and logline-clear: a grieving man activates an digital partner that turns into a dangerous lover. The date sets it at the front of a stacked January, with the Universal machine likely to mirror uncanny live moments and quick hits that melds romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a final title to become an attention spike closer to the teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s work are branded as must-see filmmaker statements, with a hinting teaser and a subsequent trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The prime October weekend offers Universal room to lead 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 directs, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has demonstrated that a gnarly, practical-first mix can feel high-value on a moderate cost. Look for a gore-forward summer horror jolt that emphasizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, keeping a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is billing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both fans and new audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build marketing units around world-building, and creature work, elements that can increase premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror built on obsessive craft and period language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus’s team has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Platform plans for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre entries window into copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that optimizes both week-one demand and trial spikes in the later phase. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with world buys and brief theater runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library pulls, using prominent placements, horror hubs, and curated strips to keep attention on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix remains opportunistic about internal projects and festival buys, dating horror entries on shorter runways and elevating as drops premieres with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a staged of precision theatrical plays and swift platform pivots that converts WOM to subscribers. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a situational basis. The platform has signaled readiness to buy select projects with name filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 pipeline with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is clear: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, modernized for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical-first plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas window to increase reach. That positioning has paid off for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Plan on 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 jointly, using limited runs to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Known brands versus new stories

By weight, 2026 leans toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is staleness. The preferred tactic is to present each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is bringing forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a continental coloration from a emerging director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and talent-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the assembly is comforting enough to generate pre-sales and early previews.

Recent-year comps illuminate the plan. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not deter a day-date move from delivering when the brand was compelling. In 2024, director-craft horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character and imp source theme and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued tilt toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in trade spotlights and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gross-out texture, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta refresh that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature design and production design, which play well in convention floor stunts and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is stacked. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid marquee brands. The month closes 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 serious, but the variety of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Q1 into Q2 stage summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

August into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited teasers that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and card redemption.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to face 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 sorrowing man’s AI companion becomes something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon 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 prickly boss struggle to survive on a lonely island as the power balance of power reverses and mistrust rises. 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to dread, driven by Cronin’s in-camera craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting scenario that plays with the unease of a child’s fragile point of view. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A send-up revival that pokes at of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime manias. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further widens again, with a young family snared by past horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-first horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBA. Production: active. 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-accurate language and elemental fear. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three operational forces organize this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shifted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming launches. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, curated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

The slot calculus is real. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, this page creating valuable space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will stack across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for 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 sleeper 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 press those advantages. 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, efficient placements, 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 tactility, sound field, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is franchise muscle where it helps, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.