Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on global platforms

A haunting unearthly fright fest from narrative craftsman / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an primeval horror when unrelated individuals become vehicles in a malevolent maze. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing story of living through and prehistoric entity that will reshape scare flicks this autumn. Produced by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and gothic screenplay follows five teens who come to isolated in a remote structure under the dark control of Kyra, a female lead consumed by a ancient Old Testament spirit. Arm yourself to be hooked by a screen-based event that blends deep-seated panic with legendary tales, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a time-honored concept in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is reimagined when the entities no longer emerge externally, but rather deep within. This portrays the most hidden shade of the victims. The result is a harrowing moral showdown where the emotions becomes a unyielding clash between light and darkness.


In a forsaken outland, five campers find themselves sealed under the evil rule and possession of a haunted woman. As the companions becomes incapacitated to escape her command, stranded and attacked by powers unnamable, they are driven to deal with their worst nightmares while the seconds coldly ticks onward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety builds and ties collapse, requiring each member to doubt their core and the nature of self-determination itself. The pressure rise with every tick, delivering a chilling narrative that harmonizes otherworldly panic with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to uncover primitive panic, an evil older than civilization itself, manipulating our fears, and challenging a power that tests the soul when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra meant evoking something deeper than fear. She is clueless until the demon emerges, and that pivot is bone-chilling because it is so internal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—allowing users internationally can survive this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its initial teaser, which has gathered over a viral response.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, bringing the film to viewers around the world.


Be sure to catch this soul-jarring fall into madness. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to explore these evil-rooted truths about mankind.


For teasers, making-of footage, and announcements from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit the movie’s homepage.





Current horror’s major pivot: 2025 across markets stateside slate fuses myth-forward possession, signature indie scares, alongside franchise surges

Running from endurance-driven terror drawn from near-Eastern lore through to series comebacks together with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is tracking to be the richest plus strategic year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors set cornerstones with known properties, at the same time OTT services prime the fall with unboxed visions as well as ancient terrors. In the indie lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is propelled by the kinetic energy from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, distinctly in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are exacting, accordingly 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium genre swings back

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s pipeline sets the tone with a big gambit: a reconceived Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a modern-day environment. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Slated 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 sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, the Warner Bros. banner delivers the closing chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma centered writing, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time the stakes climb, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The next entry deepens the tale, grows the animatronic horror lineup, reaching teens and game grownups. It lands in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Digital Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While the big screen favors titles you know, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a two hander body horror spiral featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative with Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No swollen lore. No series drag. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Lines: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, with Francis Lawrence directing, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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

Dials to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. 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
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Fall pileup, winter curveball

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

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 scare calendar year ahead: follow-ups, new stories, And A brimming Calendar optimized for jolts

Dek The arriving terror season lines up at the outset with a January cluster, from there rolls through the mid-year, and straight through the holidays, combining marquee clout, creative pitches, and data-minded counter-scheduling. Studios with streamers are doubling down on tight budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that elevate the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror has shown itself to be the predictable lever in distribution calendars, a vertical that can spike when it clicks and still cushion the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year showed strategy teams that responsibly budgeted genre plays can own social chatter, 2024 kept energy high with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The tailwind fed into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and elevated films made clear there is a market for different modes, from legacy continuations to original one-offs that export nicely. The result for the 2026 slate is a roster that appears tightly organized across the market, with clear date clusters, a balance of brand names and first-time concepts, and a tightened eye on exclusive windows that drive downstream revenue on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Insiders argue the category now performs as a swing piece on the release plan. The genre can debut on virtually any date, yield a easy sell for creative and social clips, and lead with viewers that show up on previews Thursday and hold through the next pass if the film hits. Emerging from a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 cadence demonstrates conviction in that approach. The calendar gets underway with a heavy January block, then leans on spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while leaving room for a fall corridor that runs into spooky season and beyond. The grid also spotlights the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and home platforms that can launch in limited release, generate chatter, and move wide at the inflection point.

A further high-level trend is brand curation across unified worlds and storied titles. Big banners are not just mounting another chapter. They are seeking to position continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a art treatment that broadcasts a new tone or a casting move that links a next entry to a foundational era. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the most anticipated originals are prioritizing physical effects work, makeup and prosthetics and place-driven backdrops. That interplay delivers the 2026 slate a strong blend of brand comfort and novelty, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount fires first with two front-of-slate pushes that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the front, setting it up as both a cross-generational handoff useful reference and a classic-mode character piece. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach signals a nostalgia-forward approach without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected rooted in classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reawakens 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 in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will lean on. As a summer alternative, this one will build wide appeal through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick shifts to whatever dominates the conversation that spring.

Universal has three separate projects. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is simple, somber, and concept-forward: a grieving man sets up an virtual partner that shifts into a murderous partner. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with the Universal machine likely to echo off-kilter promo beats and micro spots that fuses devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the debut look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s releases are set up as auteur events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later creative that define feel without revealing the concept. The pre-Halloween slot allows Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has proven that a gritty, on-set effects led mix can feel cinematic on a mid-range budget. Look for a red-band summer horror shock that centers global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio deploys two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a steady supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is selling as a clean-slate approach 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 players and newcomers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build assets around setting detail, and creature builds, elements that can boost format premiums and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in obsessive craft and historical speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The company has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s horror titles window into copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a structure that boosts both premiere heat and subscriber lifts in the back half. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with global acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data signals it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog engagement, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and curated strips to sustain interest on the horror cume. Netflix stays nimble about internal projects and festival grabs, slotting horror entries toward the drop and making event-like go-lives with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a paired of selective theatrical runs and prompt platform moves that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is direct: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, retooled for modern sound and cinematography. 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 flagged a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the September weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, guiding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas window to open out. That positioning has shown results for prestige horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception supports. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using boutique theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their user base.

Known brands versus new stories

By volume, 2026 leans toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness franchise value. The challenge, as ever, is audience fatigue. The go-to fix is to brand each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is centering relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a European tilt from a buzzed-about director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the team and cast is recognizable enough to accelerate early sales and advance-audience nights.

Past-three-year patterns help explain the logic. In 2023, a cinema-first model that maintained windows did not prevent a hybrid test from performing when the brand was strong. In 2024, auteur craft horror hit big in premium formats. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they rotate perspective and expand the Get More Info canvas. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, permits marketing to tie installments through personae and themes and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The craft conversations behind the 2026 entries signal a continued preference for tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that foregrounds creep and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft coverage before rolling out a tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for red-band excess, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta-horror reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature craft and set design, which are ideal for fan-con activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel compelling. Look for trailers that emphasize pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

January is busy. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid big-brand pushes. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the range of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth carries.

Winter into spring load in summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can win 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 rolled through premiums.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a early fall window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a opaque tease strategy and limited disclosures that elevate concept over story.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s algorithmic partner mutates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: tone-first game 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 hard-edged boss fight to survive on a uninhabited island as the power dynamic shifts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s hands-on craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting tale that plays with the fear of a child’s unreliable perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-built and headline-actor led ghost thriller.

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 targets of-the-moment horror beats and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 spreads, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further reopens, with a young family anchored to lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on classic survival-horror tone over action-forward bombast. Rating: pending. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: to be announced. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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-precise speech and primal menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: gearing up with December 25 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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why this year, why now

Three workable forces inform this lineup. First, production that slowed or reshuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify repeatable beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where value-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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, acoustics, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is franchise muscle where it helps, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.