Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient dread, a chilling horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

One haunting paranormal suspense story from scriptwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an long-buried nightmare when newcomers become subjects in a diabolical maze. Premiering October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking journey of staying alive and forgotten curse that will revolutionize the fear genre this harvest season. Created by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and moody thriller follows five unacquainted souls who wake up trapped in a unreachable cottage under the malignant command of Kyra, a haunted figure claimed by a time-worn scriptural evil. Anticipate to be ensnared by a visual display that fuses bone-deep fear with folklore, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a iconic tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is flipped when the monsters no longer appear from a different plane, but rather inside their minds. This symbolizes the darkest version of every character. The result is a intense mind game where the plotline becomes a constant struggle between light and darkness.


In a unforgiving backcountry, five individuals find themselves contained under the ghastly force and domination of a enigmatic woman. As the companions becomes incapable to reject her will, exiled and tracked by evils beyond reason, they are forced to reckon with their greatest panics while the doomsday meter unceasingly strikes toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia rises and bonds dissolve, pressuring each member to reflect on their being and the philosophy of free will itself. The cost grow with every passing moment, delivering a terror ride that harmonizes otherworldly panic with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to awaken ancestral fear, an force that existed before mankind, feeding on inner turmoil, and exposing a entity that erodes the self when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra called for internalizing something outside normal anguish. She is ignorant until the curse activates, and that transformation is bone-chilling because it is so visceral.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—offering customers worldwide can engage with this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first trailer, which has earned over strong viewer count.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, bringing the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Avoid skipping this unforgettable ride through nightmares. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to explore these chilling revelations about human nature.


For director insights, special features, and promotions from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursed across fan hubs and visit the official movie site.





Horror’s pivotal crossroads: the 2025 cycle American release plan melds Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, alongside brand-name tremors

Moving from fight-to-live nightmare stories grounded in near-Eastern lore and including canon extensions in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the richest along with deliberate year in ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio majors stabilize the year with known properties, at the same time streaming platforms load up the fall with discovery plays set against legend-coded dread. In the indie lane, horror’s indie wing is propelled by the echoes of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are intentional, therefore 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The top end is active. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s slate starts the year with a risk-forward move: a reimagined Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. Guided by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. dated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Directed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer eases, Warner Bros. Pictures delivers the closing chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, with ghostly inner logic. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It lands in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: No Budget, No Problem

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a body horror duet pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga featuring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No overstuffed canon. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festivals as Springboards

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.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. 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 entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

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

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Franchise Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Key Trends

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror comes roaring back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The forthcoming 2026 spook slate: follow-ups, original films, plus A loaded Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek The new genre season crowds early with a January bottleneck, then unfolds through June and July, and running into the late-year period, fusing brand equity, inventive spins, and strategic counterweight. Distributors with platforms are focusing on efficient budgets, theater-first strategies, and shareable marketing that convert genre titles into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The genre has shown itself to be the surest play in programming grids, a vertical that can spike when it lands and still limit the floor when it doesn’t. After 2023 signaled to leaders that low-to-mid budget chillers can own audience talk, the following year held pace with buzzy auteur projects and slow-burn breakouts. The trend flowed into the 2025 frame, where revivals and critical darlings showed there is room for different modes, from returning installments to standalone ideas that play globally. The result for the 2026 slate is a roster that is strikingly coherent across the market, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of recognizable IP and original hooks, and a reinvigorated focus on theater exclusivity that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and subscription services.

Planners observe the category now acts as a versatile piece on the calendar. The genre can kick off on most weekends, generate a tight logline for creative and short-form placements, and outstrip with crowds that appear on early shows and stay strong through the second frame if the release connects. In the wake of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 setup exhibits certainty in that setup. The slate launches with a weighty January schedule, then leans on spring and early summer for audience offsets, while clearing room for a fall corridor that carries into holiday-adjacent weekends and into post-Halloween. The gridline also spotlights the increasing integration of indie distributors and streamers that can nurture a platform play, spark evangelism, and grow at the timely point.

A notable top-line trend is IP cultivation across connected story worlds and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just producing another sequel. They are moving to present story carry-over with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that flags a recalibrated tone or a casting pivot that anchors a fresh chapter to a first wave. At the same time, the creative teams behind the most anticipated originals are prioritizing in-camera technique, practical effects and place-driven backdrops. That alloy provides the 2026 slate a confident blend of comfort and surprise, which is what works overseas.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two prominent projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the spine, positioning the film as both a relay and a origin-leaning character piece. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the artistic posture conveys a fan-service aware strategy without repeating the last two entries’ family thread. Expect a marketing push centered on heritage visuals, character spotlights, and a tiered teaser plan slated for late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will play up. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will go after mainstream recognition through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format allowing quick redirects to whatever rules horror talk that spring.

Universal has three separate strategies. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is tight, tragic, and big-hook: a grieving man adopts an virtual partner that grows into a harmful mate. The date puts it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the studio’s marketing likely to revisit viral uncanny stunts and micro spots that hybridizes attachment and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a title drop to become an event moment closer to the first trailer. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. The filmmaker’s films are positioned as filmmaker events, with a concept-forward tease and a later creative that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor allows Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a visceral, in-camera leaning mix can feel high-value on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror blast that spotlights foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio places two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, holding a reliable supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is billing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both franchise faithful and casuals. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign creative around mythos, and monster craft, elements that can lift premium format interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by rigorous craft and textual fidelity, this time set against lycan legends. The specialty arm has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Windowing plans in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s genre entries feed copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a ordering that elevates both initial urgency and subscription bumps in the later window. Prime Video interleaves licensed films with worldwide buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in archive usage, using seasonal hubs, spooky hubs, and curated rows to keep attention on overall cume. Netflix keeps options open about first-party entries and festival pickups, locking in horror entries tight to release and elevating as drops drops with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a one-two of targeted theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that translates talk to trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a selective basis. The platform has indicated interest to invest in select projects with acclaimed directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 pipeline with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is tight: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, elevated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a theatrical rollout for the title, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the September weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday corridor to scale. That positioning has helped for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a run of late-summer have a peek at these guys and fall platformers that can break out if reception allows. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using targeted theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Balance of brands and originals

By count, the 2026 slate skews toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate franchise value. The caveat, as ever, is overexposure. The operating solution is to sell each entry as a new angle. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a continental coloration from a buzzed-about director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is comforting enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns contextualize the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that observed windows did not deter a day-date move from paying off when the brand was powerful. In 2024, art-forward horror popped in premium screens. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they rotate perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters shot consecutively, provides the means for marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to continue assets in field without long breaks.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The director conversations behind the upcoming entries point to a continued preference for in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that leans on unease and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that leans on mood over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta recalibration that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster work and world-building, which are ideal for booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is busy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint 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 credible, but the spread of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late summer into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

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 meet a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s artificial companion mutates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 difficult boss fight to survive on a rugged island as the chain of command inverts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fear, anchored by Cronin’s material craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting setup that plays with the fright of a child’s unreliable interpretations. Rating: rating pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A genre lampoon that teases present-day genre chatter and true-crime crazes. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family anchored to old terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A new start designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-first horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: underway. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and elemental dread. Rating: TBD. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three practical forces organize this lineup. First, production that eased or recalendared in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work social-ready stingers from test screenings, metered scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will stack across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first quiet 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand equity where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, lock the reveals, and let the screams sell the seats.