Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a fear soaked shocker, premiering Oct 2025 across leading streamers

A unnerving otherworldly nightmare movie from screenwriter / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an timeless malevolence when passersby become puppets in a satanic contest. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping portrayal of staying alive and primeval wickedness that will reshape genre cinema this cool-weather season. Crafted by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and atmospheric cinema piece follows five individuals who arise ensnared in a off-grid lodge under the malevolent dominion of Kyra, a mysterious girl inhabited by a ancient religious nightmare. Be warned to be shaken by a motion picture journey that integrates soul-chilling terror with mystical narratives, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a legendary fixture in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is subverted when the entities no longer arise from external sources, but rather through their own souls. This symbolizes the malevolent shade of the players. The result is a enthralling psychological battle where the conflict becomes a ongoing battle between virtue and vice.


In a abandoned natural abyss, five campers find themselves contained under the ghastly influence and infestation of a haunted apparition. As the cast becomes powerless to deny her will, marooned and attacked by forces impossible to understand, they are compelled to confront their soulful dreads while the deathwatch unceasingly pushes forward toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety deepens and alliances shatter, pushing each member to evaluate their existence and the philosophy of personal agency itself. The consequences rise with every beat, delivering a chilling narrative that intertwines ghostly evil with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to explore deep fear, an curse before modern man, manipulating soul-level flaws, and navigating a evil that forces self-examination when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra involved tapping into something beyond human emotion. She is clueless until the possession kicks in, and that turn is emotionally raw because it is so private.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—ensuring horror lovers around the globe can dive into this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first trailer, which has seen over 100K plays.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, delivering the story to international horror buffs.


Witness this bone-rattling spiral into evil. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to witness these unholy truths about free will.


For previews, production insights, and reveals from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursed across social media and visit the official website.





Today’s horror watershed moment: 2025 across markets U.S. lineup interlaces archetypal-possession themes, signature indie scares, together with legacy-brand quakes

Running from last-stand terror infused with biblical myth through to canon extensions together with focused festival visions, 2025 is shaping up as the genre’s most multifaceted as well as calculated campaign year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. the big studios hold down the year with familiar IP, in parallel SVOD players stack the fall with debut heat paired with primordial unease. On another front, the independent cohort is buoyed by the backdraft of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and now, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, thus 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: High-craft horror returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal banner begins the calendar with an audacious swing: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. With Leigh Whannell at the helm featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. arriving mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Under Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

When summer fades, the Warner lot releases the last chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson re boards, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, along with eerie supernatural rules. The bar is raised this go, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, speaking to teens and older millennials. It opens in December, cornering year end horror.

SVOD Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a calculated bet. No bloated canon. No franchise baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy IP: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Trend Lines

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror resurges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The 2026 spook cycle: next chapters, new stories, paired with A hectic Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek The fresh scare slate packs in short order with a January crush, then rolls through summer, and straight through the late-year period, mixing legacy muscle, new voices, and savvy counterweight. The big buyers and platforms are relying on efficient budgets, cinema-first plans, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror marketplace has established itself as the sturdy counterweight in studio lineups, a category that can break out when it lands and still insulate the downside when it does not. After the 2023 year re-taught greenlighters that responsibly budgeted horror vehicles can galvanize social chatter, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with filmmaker-forward plays and under-the-radar smashes. The energy flowed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and festival-grade titles underscored there is a market for several lanes, from sequel tracks to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The result for the 2026 slate is a slate that presents tight coordination across players, with strategic blocks, a mix of legacy names and new packages, and a revived priority on release windows that power the aftermarket on premium video on demand and home streaming.

Schedulers say the horror lane now acts as a plug-and-play option on the programming map. The genre can premiere on a wide range of weekends, generate a simple premise for creative and platform-native cuts, and lead with viewers that turn out on first-look nights and stay strong through the next weekend if the film pays off. After a production delay era, the 2026 setup exhibits assurance in that equation. The calendar opens with a front-loaded January band, then uses spring and early summer for audience offsets, while clearing room for a fall corridor that carries into late October and beyond. The grid also shows the deeper integration of indie arms and platforms that can launch in limited release, ignite recommendations, and widen at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is brand curation across linked properties and classic IP. Major shops are not just greenlighting another installment. They are aiming to frame connection with a sense of event, whether that is a title presentation that flags a new vibe or a casting pivot that ties a latest entry to a initial period. At the alongside this, the creative leads behind the top original plays are embracing in-camera technique, makeup and prosthetics and location-forward worlds. That convergence delivers the 2026 slate a strong blend of brand comfort and surprise, which is how the films export.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount leads early with two big-ticket projects that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the spine, angling it as both a passing of the torch and a back-to-basics character-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a classic-referencing treatment without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run fueled by signature symbols, character spotlights, and a tease cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will emphasize. As a summer alternative, this one will build mass reach through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format fitting quick turns to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three separate pushes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is efficient, sorrow-tinged, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man implements an virtual partner that escalates into a perilous partner. The date puts it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the marketing arm likely to recreate eerie street stunts and short-cut promos that interlaces attachment and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a official title to become an marketing beat closer to the teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s work are framed as marquee events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a raw, physical-effects centered style can feel prestige on a lean spend. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror surge that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio lines up two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, maintaining a evergreen supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is marketing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both loyalists and casuals. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around narrative world, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify deluxe auditorium demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by minute detail and linguistic texture, this time orbiting lycan myth. The company has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is supportive.

Digital platform strategies

Platform plans for 2026 run on well-known grooves. The Universal horror run flow to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that boosts both week-one demand and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video will mix third-party pickups with worldwide buys and short theatrical plays when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog engagement, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and curated strips to lengthen the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival grabs, locking in horror entries closer to drop and elevating as drops drops with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a one-two of focused cinema runs and rapid platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to invest in select projects with acclaimed directors or star packages, horror then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for retention when the genre conversation surges.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 track with two franchise steps. 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 haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, reimagined for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a cinema-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has delivered for auteur horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception justifies. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using limited runs to kindle evangelism that fuels their membership.

Known brands versus new stories

By volume, 2026 tips toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on marquee value. The concern, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to position each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is spotlighting character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French sensibility from a hot helmer. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the cast-creatives package is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday previews.

Three-year comps help explain the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that held distribution windows did not foreclose a day-date try from hitting when the brand was trusted. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror rose in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, permits marketing to tie installments through relationships and themes and to leave creative active without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The director conversations behind this slate point to a continued lean toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that underscores grain and menace rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and era-correct language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in long-lead press and technical spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that withholds plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta pivot that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will live or die on monster work and world-building, which favor expo activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that accent pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that benefit on big speakers.

How the year maps out

January is heavy. Universal’s 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 heftier brand moves. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the mix of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late winter and spring prime the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can hit 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.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a minimalist tease strategy and limited asset reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s synthetic partner becomes something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 tough boss fight to survive on a remote island as the power balance flips and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to fright, built on Cronin’s practical craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting setup that teases the fright of a child’s wobbly interpretations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-financed and celebrity-led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A comic send-up that satirizes today’s horror trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBD. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 surges, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new clan entangled with lingering terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: to be announced. 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: purposely secretive. Rating: to be announced. Production: in progress. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and raw menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026, why now

Three workable forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that stalled or re-sequenced in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, managed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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-hit hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience journey through the year

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

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient screen counts, 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 dimensionality, aural design, 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is franchise muscle where it helps, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.