Mythic Terror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 on global platforms

One frightening spiritual thriller from writer / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an ancient entity when drifters become subjects in a supernatural conflict. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving depiction of survival and timeless dread that will transform fear-driven cinema this fall. Realized by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and cinematic story follows five individuals who awaken trapped in a unreachable cottage under the unfriendly command of Kyra, a female presence occupied by a time-worn religious nightmare. Brace yourself to be enthralled by a motion picture journey that unites bodily fright with ancient myths, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a historical element in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is inverted when the malevolences no longer manifest outside their bodies, but rather internally. This portrays the darkest aspect of the protagonists. The result is a harrowing internal warfare where the drama becomes a constant clash between righteousness and malevolence.


In a barren terrain, five characters find themselves contained under the dark sway and control of a obscure female presence. As the youths becomes submissive to break her control, isolated and tracked by beings inconceivable, they are forced to encounter their raw vulnerabilities while the clock coldly edges forward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear swells and teams collapse, prompting each individual to evaluate their personhood and the foundation of freedom of choice itself. The tension climb with every tick, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that integrates otherworldly suspense with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to explore instinctual horror, an force from prehistory, channeling itself through emotional vulnerability, and exposing a spirit that challenges autonomy when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra demanded embodying something more primal than sorrow. She is unaware until the control shifts, and that pivot is deeply unsettling because it is so intimate.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for worldwide release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure subscribers anywhere can face this fearful revelation.


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


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, offering the tale to global fright lovers.


Make sure to see this life-altering descent into darkness. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to see these nightmarish insights about our species.


For bonus footage, on-set glimpses, and promotions directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across social media and visit the official digital haunt.





The horror genre’s decisive shift: 2025 in focus U.S. release slate interlaces myth-forward possession, Indie Shockers, alongside series shake-ups

Beginning with survival horror infused with ancient scripture and including IP renewals alongside incisive indie visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most stratified along with precision-timed year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. leading studios are anchoring the year using marquee IP, concurrently subscription platforms front-load the fall with emerging auteurs set against archetypal fear. On the festival side, the independent cohort is carried on the kinetic energy of 2024’s record festival wave. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, notably this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are precise, and 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Premium dread reemerges

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s pipeline opens the year with a statement play: a contemporary Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Slated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer tapers, the Warner lot delivers the closing chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: nostalgic menace, trauma in the foreground, and eerie supernatural logic. The bar is raised this go, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The return delves further into myth, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It hits in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Slim budgets, major punch

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a close quarters body horror study fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also rising is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative featuring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is an astute call. No puffed out backstory. No IP hangover. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

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

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Long Running Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, steered by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trends to Watch

Mythic Horror Is 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 pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forecast: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The forthcoming 2026 fear year to come: Sequels, original films, together with A packed Calendar tailored for jolts

Dek The fresh genre calendar loads from day one with a January cluster, from there unfolds through peak season, and deep into the winter holidays, combining brand equity, novel approaches, and tactical alternatives. Studios with streamers are leaning into tight budgets, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that position these pictures into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror filmmaking has proven to be the sturdy release in annual schedules, a space that can accelerate when it connects and still limit the floor when it fails to connect. After 2023 demonstrated to executives that low-to-mid budget entries can shape the national conversation, the following year held pace with director-led heat and sleeper breakouts. The energy carried into 2025, where re-entries and prestige plays underscored there is an opening for a variety of tones, from continued chapters to filmmaker-driven originals that resonate abroad. The sum for 2026 is a run that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with mapped-out bands, a combination of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a tightened strategy on exhibition windows that drive downstream revenue on premium video on demand and platforms.

Executives say the category now acts as a swing piece on the grid. The genre can bow on virtually any date, provide a quick sell for promo reels and vertical videos, and punch above weight with audiences that come out on preview nights and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the movie connects. On the heels of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 layout exhibits confidence in that model. The calendar launches with a loaded January lineup, then leans on spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while leaving room for a autumn stretch that extends to the fright window and into November. The grid also underscores the deeper integration of boutique distributors and subscription services that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and grow at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is legacy care across shared IP webs and storied titles. Major shops are not just turning out another return. They are looking to package lineage with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a new vibe or a casting pivot that binds a next film to a vintage era. At the in tandem, the writer-directors behind the top original plays are returning to hands-on technique, practical gags and specific settings. That pairing delivers 2026 a solid mix of brand comfort and invention, which is the formula for international play.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two prominent titles that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the core, framing it as both a relay and a origin-leaning character-centered film. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture telegraphs a classic-referencing treatment without rehashing the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Watch for a push centered on signature symbols, initial cast looks, and a rollout cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches 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 centerpiece the campaign will play up. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase mainstream recognition through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format fitting quick shifts to whatever owns pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three discrete plays. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man purchases an algorithmic mate that evolves into a lethal partner. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with Universal’s team likely to recreate strange in-person beats and snackable content that interweaves affection and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a public title to become an earned moment closer to the initial tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele titles are set up as event films, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later trailer push that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has shown that a in-your-face, hands-on effects aesthetic can feel prestige on a moderate cost. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror rush that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio launches two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is describing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both devotees and fresh viewers. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around universe detail, and creature design, elements that can increase deluxe auditorium demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors 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 driven by historical precision and dialect, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s horror titles land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ladder that boosts both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the later phase. Prime Video blends acquired titles with worldwide entries and limited runs in theaters when the data supports it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using timely promos, Halloween hubs, and curated rows to stretch the tail on aggregate take. Netflix keeps flexible about internal projects and festival acquisitions, confirming horror entries near launch and eventizing releases with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a two-step of tailored theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that translates talk to trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with prestige directors or star packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for sustained usage when the genre conversation builds.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is no-nonsense: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, recalibrated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a traditional cinema play for the title, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late-season weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then leveraging the year-end corridor to increase reach. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-first horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception drives. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using small theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By count, the 2026 slate skews toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit legacy awareness. The trade-off, as ever, is diminishing returns. The workable fix is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is elevating relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-flavored turn from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the package is grounded enough to accelerate early sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years frame the strategy. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that maintained windows did not preclude a day-date try from hitting when the brand was compelling. In 2024, auteur craft horror over-performed in premium large format. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel new when they alter lens and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters lensed back-to-back, enables marketing to tie installments through character spine and themes and to keep assets alive without long breaks.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind the 2026 entries indicate a continued lean toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that elevates unease and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature work and production design, which fit with expo activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that shine in top rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is stacked. 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 big-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the mix of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Late Q1 and spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited pre-release reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s core. 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 devastated man’s intelligent companion turns into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: mood-led 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 severe boss scramble to survive on a uninhabited island as the chain of command tilts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s physical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting chiller that pipes the unease through a young child’s volatile personal vantage. Rating: pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-crafted and headline-actor led eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that pokes at of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fervors. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 erupts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further opens again, with a unlucky family bound to past horrors. Rating: pending. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: pending. Production: underway. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 historical diction and primordial menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the moment is 2026

Three practical forces inform this lineup. First, production that decelerated or recalendared in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and compressed 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, select scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, clearing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later have a peek here 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.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, audio design, and framing 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, Ready To Roar

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is recognizable IP where it plays, 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.