Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a spine tingling feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

One haunting metaphysical thriller from literary architect / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an long-buried force when guests become instruments in a demonic conflict. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching saga of staying alive and prehistoric entity that will alter terror storytelling this harvest season. Guided by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and cinematic fearfest follows five individuals who suddenly rise locked in a isolated dwelling under the sinister rule of Kyra, a female presence controlled by a 2,000-year-old scriptural evil. Prepare to be seized by a screen-based spectacle that fuses visceral dread with biblical origins, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a long-standing trope in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is reimagined when the entities no longer form from a different plane, but rather through their own souls. This illustrates the darkest version of the protagonists. The result is a riveting internal warfare where the conflict becomes a merciless battle between heaven and hell.


In a remote forest, five campers find themselves contained under the malicious rule and grasp of a obscure person. As the ensemble becomes helpless to deny her influence, isolated and tormented by creatures impossible to understand, they are pushed to face their worst nightmares while the final hour without pity strikes toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease swells and alliances disintegrate, coercing each figure to scrutinize their values and the idea of self-determination itself. The danger grow with every second, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that merges otherworldly panic with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to extract basic terror, an entity that existed before mankind, operating within emotional vulnerability, and examining a curse that peels away humanity when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra was about accessing something rooted in terror. She is unseeing until the spirit seizes her, and that turn is bone-chilling because it is so deep.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing viewers everywhere can enjoy this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first trailer, which has attracted over strong viewer count.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, giving access to the movie to international horror buffs.


Don’t miss this soul-jarring fall into madness. Stream *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to witness these ghostly lessons about the soul.


For director insights, filmmaker commentary, and press updates from those who lived it, follow @YACFilm across social media and visit our horror hub.





Contemporary horror’s major pivot: the year 2025 domestic schedule interlaces archetypal-possession themes, art-house nightmares, paired with legacy-brand quakes

Running from last-stand terror grounded in primordial scripture and extending to series comebacks in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the richest along with carefully orchestrated year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. leading studios lock in tentpoles by way of signature titles, as OTT services pack the fall with emerging auteurs alongside archetypal fear. On the independent axis, the artisan tier is propelled by the echoes of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween holding the peak, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, notably this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are disciplined, so 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s slate kicks off the frame with a headline swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. dated for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Guided by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer winds down, Warner’s pipeline releases the last chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: old school creep, trauma driven plotting, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This pass pushes higher, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The next entry deepens the tale, thickens the animatronic pantheon, courting teens and the thirty something base. It arrives in December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Plays: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a sealed box body horror arc including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, 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. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is destined for a fall landing.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by 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 terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. That is a savvy move. No bloated mythology. No brand fatigue. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

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

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI 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, 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. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror retakes ground
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Big screen is a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The next genre cycle: installments, universe starters, in tandem with A jammed Calendar designed for chills

Dek The fresh genre calendar stacks from day one with a January crush, after that unfolds through midyear, and pushing into the holiday frame, combining brand heft, novel approaches, and tactical counter-scheduling. Studio marketers and platforms are doubling down on responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and buzz-forward plans that frame the slate’s entries into national conversation.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has turned into the dependable tool in release plans, a genre that can accelerate when it breaks through and still cushion the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year showed buyers that lean-budget horror vehicles can drive the national conversation, the following year sustained momentum with buzzy auteur projects and unexpected risers. The tailwind translated to the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and critical darlings signaled there is space for diverse approaches, from sequel tracks to director-led originals that play globally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a slate that reads highly synchronized across the market, with planned clusters, a mix of familiar brands and novel angles, and a re-energized commitment on box-office windows that power the aftermarket on premium home window and subscription services.

Schedulers say the genre now performs as a wildcard on the programming map. The genre can arrive on a wide range of weekends, provide a easy sell for creative and social clips, and outperform with viewers that appear on first-look nights and hold through the subsequent weekend if the feature fires. Exiting a work stoppage lag, the 2026 pattern telegraphs comfort in that logic. The slate starts with a weighty January run, then turns to spring and early summer for alternate plays, while holding room for a fall cadence that connects to late October and into post-Halloween. The program also features the stronger partnership of boutique distributors and streaming partners that can stage a platform run, stoke social talk, and expand at the precise moment.

A second macro trend is franchise tending across ongoing universes and established properties. Studio teams are not just turning out another chapter. They are seeking to position connection with a headline quality, whether that is a logo package that conveys a new vibe or a cast configuration that binds a new installment to a heyday. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the top original plays are returning to physical effects work, in-camera effects and place-driven backdrops. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a robust balance of recognition and unexpected turns, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount leads early with two front-of-slate plays that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the heart, positioning the film as both a legacy handover and a classic-mode character piece. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a nostalgia-forward campaign without looping the last two entries’ sibling arc. Count on a promo wave built on recognizable motifs, intro reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will double down on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue broad awareness through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format supporting quick redirects to whatever tops pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three discrete strategies. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is crisp, soulful, and concept-forward: a grieving man purchases an artificial companion that turns into a perilous partner. The date locates it at the front of a stacked January, with the marketing arm likely to renew creepy live activations and short-form creative that fuses companionship and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as filmmaker events, with a hinting teaser and a next wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor allows Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, hands-on effects method can feel elevated on a efficient spend. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror shock that spotlights overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio lines up two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, sustaining a evergreen supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is presenting as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 mission to serve both fans and novices. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign creative around environmental design, and creature builds, elements that can fuel premium format interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on rigorous craft and linguistic texture, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus Features has already set the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is strong.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform tactics for 2026 run on tested paths. The studio’s horror films land on copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a pacing that boosts both premiere heat and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video combines licensed titles with world buys and select theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in catalog engagement, using featured rows, genre hubs, and programmed rows to extend momentum on aggregate take. Netflix keeps flexible about first-party entries and festival deals, timing horror entries closer to launch and eventizing drops with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a laddered of selective theatrical runs and speedy platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a situational basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to purchase select projects with top-tier auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for sustained usage when the genre conversation heats up.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is straightforward: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, modernized for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, guiding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas corridor to broaden. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception prompts. Plan on 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 in parallel, using targeted theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their audience.

Balance of brands and originals

By volume, the 2026 slate bends toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The go-to fix is to sell each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is foregrounding character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and director-driven titles add oxygen. 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-thriller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the cast-creatives package is grounded enough to spark pre-sales and early previews.

Three-year comps contextualize the method. In 2023, a exclusive window model that maintained windows did not obstruct a parallel release from paying off when the brand was big. In 2024, art-forward horror exceeded expectations in PLF. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to leave creative active without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate hint at a continued emphasis on physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that leans on unease and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft features before rolling out a initial teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in expo activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that play in premium auditoriums.

The schedule at a glance

January is packed. 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 moody palate cleanser amid larger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late winter and spring stage summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited information drops that trade in concept over detail.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then turning to 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 gift-card burn.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s machine mate evolves into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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 collide with a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: aura-driven 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 tough boss struggle to survive on a lonely island as the power balance turns and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to chill, shaped by Cronin’s in-camera craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting narrative that interrogates the fear of a child’s shaky POV. Rating: TBD. Production: completed. Positioning: major-studio and name-above-title spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles contemporary horror memes and true-crime obsessions. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new family tethered to lingering terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: pending. 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: forthcoming. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing. 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 period-specific language and bone-deep menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three practical forces shape this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more structured 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 premieres. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

A fourth factor is programming math. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can control a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will trade weekends across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. 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.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where lean-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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, lean footprints, and my company strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, soundscape, 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 Is Well Positioned

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is name recognition where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.