Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a chilling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 on premium platforms

A frightening paranormal suspense film from storyteller / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an timeless dread when passersby become vehicles in a demonic struggle. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing depiction of resilience and forgotten curse that will revamp genre cinema this ghoul season. Produced by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and emotionally thick screenplay follows five figures who awaken ensnared in a unreachable dwelling under the menacing sway of Kyra, a mysterious girl controlled by a biblical-era religious nightmare. Steel yourself to be hooked by a narrative spectacle that melds raw fear with ancient myths, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a long-standing foundation in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is turned on its head when the monsters no longer appear outside their bodies, but rather from deep inside. This embodies the darkest facet of all involved. The result is a psychologically brutal spiritual tug-of-war where the story becomes a ongoing fight between moral forces.


In a haunting backcountry, five adults find themselves isolated under the fiendish aura and spiritual invasion of a obscure being. As the survivors becomes unresisting to evade her rule, left alone and tracked by presences indescribable, they are cornered to battle their emotional phantoms while the final hour ruthlessly draws closer toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion surges and teams crack, requiring each individual to rethink their core and the principle of liberty itself. The danger climb with every instant, delivering a horror experience that marries supernatural terror with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to uncover elemental fright, an malevolence older than civilization itself, manipulating our weaknesses, and dealing with a darkness that forces self-examination when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra needed manifesting something far beyond human desperation. She is unseeing until the invasion happens, and that shift is harrowing because it is so emotional.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for home viewing beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving customers no matter where they are can experience this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first preview, which has received over notable views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, making the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Do not miss this mind-warping descent into hell. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to see these evil-rooted truths about the human condition.


For director insights, extra content, and reveals from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across entertainment pages and visit our horror hub.





American horror’s pivotal crossroads: the year 2025 U.S. Slate integrates myth-forward possession, independent shockers, in parallel with brand-name tremors

Across last-stand terror drawn from mythic scripture and extending to series comebacks and cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 looks like the most stratified paired with precision-timed year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio majors set cornerstones with franchise anchors, in parallel platform operators pack the fall with debut heat plus primordial unease. In the indie lane, the artisan tier is drafting behind the carry of 2024’s record festival wave. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are exacting, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: The Return of Prestige Fear

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal camp fires the first shot with a confident swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a clear present-tense world. Led by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. set for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Under Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

When summer fades, the Warner Bros. banner sets loose the finale within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re teams, and the memorable motifs return: 70s style chill, trauma explicitly handled, with ghostly inner logic. This time the stakes climb, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It bows in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: Slim budgets, major punch

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a body horror chamber piece including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn featuring 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 work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Heritage Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Signals and Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Outlook: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. 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.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The upcoming terror calendar year ahead: entries, universe starters, together with A stacked Calendar tailored for frights

Dek The emerging horror calendar packs up front with a January logjam, thereafter carries through summer corridors, and carrying into the late-year period, mixing series momentum, fresh ideas, and strategic counter-scheduling. Studios and platforms are doubling down on right-sized spends, box-office-first windows, and platform-native promos that shape these films into water-cooler talk.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The field has solidified as the predictable lever in studio calendars, a vertical that can lift when it lands and still insulate the drag when it stumbles. After 2023 showed executives that mid-range chillers can lead the discourse, the following year kept the drumbeat going with high-profile filmmaker pieces and surprise hits. The carry translated to the 2025 frame, where revivals and prestige plays signaled there is capacity for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to director-led originals that scale internationally. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a programming that feels more orchestrated than usual across the major shops, with strategic blocks, a harmony of familiar brands and first-time concepts, and a sharpened emphasis on box-office windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium home window and streaming.

Distribution heads claim the space now operates like a utility player on the schedule. The genre can debut on many corridors, provide a clean hook for previews and short-form placements, and exceed norms with ticket buyers that lean in on first-look nights and hold through the second weekend if the movie delivers. On the heels of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 setup underscores certainty in that equation. The year begins with a heavy January stretch, then primes spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while making space for a fall corridor that flows toward spooky season and beyond. The gridline also includes the expanded integration of specialty distributors and home platforms that can build gradually, spark evangelism, and move wide at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is brand curation across ongoing universes and legacy franchises. Studios are not just releasing another sequel. They are aiming to frame continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that announces a new tone or a casting move that ties a new entry to a initial period. At the alongside this, the helmers behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into practical craft, practical effects and site-specific worlds. That convergence yields the 2026 slate a robust balance of brand comfort and novelty, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount plants an early flag with two spotlight plays that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the lead, positioning the film as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode character study. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative stance telegraphs a heritage-honoring strategy without repeating the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Expect a marketing push leaning on legacy iconography, initial cast looks, and a tease cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will feature. As a summer contrast play, this one will hunt four-quadrant chatter through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format fitting quick turns to whatever tops the social talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct pushes. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is clean, loss-driven, and big-hook: a grieving man adopts an virtual partner that grows into a perilous partner. The date locates it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to mirror off-kilter promo beats and brief clips that threads intimacy and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a title reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the opening teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele titles are presented as auteur events, with a hinting teaser and a next wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway allows Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has proven that a flesh-and-blood, in-camera leaning treatment can feel cinematic on a mid-range budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror hit that pushes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio rolls out two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, maintaining a dependable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is positioning as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both loyalists and newcomers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign creative around world-building, and creature design, elements that can lift large-format 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 maintains Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by textural authenticity and dialect, this time driven by werewolf stories. The label has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is favorable.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform tactics for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that elevates both debut momentum and sub growth in the post-theatrical. Prime Video pairs library titles with cross-border buys and short theatrical plays when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library engagement, using in-app campaigns, seasonal hubs, and staff picks to extend momentum on the annual genre haul. Netflix remains opportunistic about first-party entries and festival pickups, scheduling horror entries on shorter runways and eventizing rollouts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a dual-phase of click site targeted cinema placements and accelerated platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a selective basis. The platform has proven amenable to buy select projects with name filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 slate 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 uncomplicated: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, updated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, shepherding the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then relying on the December frame to widen. That positioning has paid off for auteur horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception prompts. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their membership.

Legacy titles versus originals

By share, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness marquee value. The risk, as ever, is viewer burnout. The standing approach is to present each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is underscoring character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a Francophone tone from a buzzed-about director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and auteur plays bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the package is recognizable enough to accelerate early sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps help explain the approach. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that observed windows did not preclude a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was compelling. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror outperformed in premium large format. Get More Info In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they angle differently and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, permits marketing to relate entries through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without lulls.

Creative tendencies and craft

The filmmaking conversations behind this year’s genre telegraph a continued lean toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates mood and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and department features before rolling out a preview that leans on mood over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta pivot that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature work and production design, which work nicely for booth activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel key. Look for trailers that underscore fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is packed. 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 brooding contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the spread of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late Q1 and spring prime the summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a minimalist tease strategy and limited previews that trade in concept over detail.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s synthetic partner grows into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 difficult boss claw to survive on a lonely island as the chain of command shifts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

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 from-today rework that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s tactile craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 household haunting scenario that refracts terror through a little one’s unreliable inner lens. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A parody return that skewers modern genre fads and true crime fixations. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new household tethered to long-buried horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in classic survival-horror tone over action spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBD. Production: moving forward. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 antique diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: pending. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why this year, why now

Three operational forces inform this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shuffled in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter schedules. 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will coexist across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 austere, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, have a peek here aural design, 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 Shapes Up Strong

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is name recognition where it counts, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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, preserve the surprise, and let the gasps sell the seats.