Age-old Evil Emerges within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled feature, premiering Oct 2025 on major streaming services

An terrifying mystic thriller from screenwriter / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an forgotten entity when unknowns become victims in a satanic contest. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking chronicle of resilience and old world terror that will revolutionize scare flicks this Halloween season. Helmed by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and gothic cinema piece follows five teens who find themselves confined in a wilderness-bound shack under the malignant control of Kyra, a possessed female occupied by a time-worn scriptural evil. Anticipate to be absorbed by a cinematic outing that blends instinctive fear with legendary tales, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a classic narrative in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is inverted when the entities no longer form externally, but rather from their psyche. This symbolizes the most terrifying corner of the victims. The result is a edge-of-seat inner struggle where the tension becomes a relentless battle between light and darkness.


In a bleak wild, five teens find themselves marooned under the ghastly influence and infestation of a unknown entity. As the group becomes submissive to resist her power, isolated and stalked by entities beyond comprehension, they are thrust to reckon with their raw vulnerabilities while the seconds without pity strikes toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety deepens and bonds shatter, urging each survivor to evaluate their values and the concept of freedom of choice itself. The tension accelerate with every passing moment, delivering a chilling narrative that marries unearthly horror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to uncover basic terror, an power rooted in antiquity, feeding on soul-level flaws, and testing a spirit that redefines identity when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra meant evoking something more primal than sorrow. She is in denial until the control shifts, and that transition is emotionally raw because it is so emotional.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for streaming beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that subscribers globally can survive this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first preview, which has earned over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, taking the terror to global fright lovers.


Be sure to catch this visceral spiral into evil. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to dive into these spiritual awakenings about inner darkness.


For exclusive trailers, filmmaker commentary, and alerts from the story's source, follow @YACFilm across your favorite networks and visit our horror hub.





Today’s horror decisive shift: the year 2025 U.S. rollouts braids together archetypal-possession themes, festival-born jolts, and legacy-brand quakes

Moving from grit-forward survival fare inspired by mythic scripture and including brand-name continuations alongside acutely observed indies, 2025 appears poised to be the richest as well as blueprinted year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio powerhouses lay down anchors with franchise anchors, even as subscription platforms pack the fall with discovery plays in concert with scriptural shivers. On the festival side, the art-house flank is fueled by the carry from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and now, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, therefore 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige fear returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal banner opens the year with a big gambit: a refreshed Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Slated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Helmed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer wanes, the Warner lot delivers the closing chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Despite a known recipe, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re boards, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This pass pushes higher, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The next entry deepens the tale, thickens the animatronic pantheon, bridging teens and legacy players. It posts in December, holding the cold season’s end.

SVOD Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a room scale body horror descent pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is destined for a fall landing.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative featuring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

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 Underneath: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a smart play. No swollen lore. No canon weight. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI 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 shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror returns
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical Is Now 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 saturation and a winter joker

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The next scare year to come: continuations, non-franchise titles, in tandem with A jammed Calendar geared toward Scares

Dek: The brand-new horror cycle loads from the jump with a January cluster, and then stretches through summer corridors, and continuing into the festive period, fusing legacy muscle, new concepts, and shrewd counterprogramming. Studios and streamers are betting on lean spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and short-form initiatives that position these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has solidified as the surest counterweight in studio slates, a category that can scale when it performs and still cushion the floor when it under-delivers. After 2023 re-taught decision-makers that modestly budgeted chillers can own the zeitgeist, the following year maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The carry moved into the 2025 frame, where reboots and awards-minded projects made clear there is room for diverse approaches, from franchise continuations to non-IP projects that travel well. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a slate that reads highly synchronized across the major shops, with defined corridors, a harmony of household franchises and untested plays, and a renewed emphasis on box-office windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium on-demand and SVOD.

Schedulers say the genre now performs as a fill-in ace on the programming map. Horror can roll out on most weekends, yield a quick sell for creative and reels, and over-index with patrons that show up on first-look nights and sustain through the next pass if the movie connects. On the heels of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence exhibits certainty in that dynamic. The year starts with a front-loaded January window, then primes spring and early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a late-year stretch that stretches into spooky season and past the holiday. The layout also illustrates the deeper integration of boutique distributors and SVOD players that can build gradually, create conversation, and move wide at the strategic time.

A further high-level trend is brand curation across linked properties and heritage properties. Studio teams are not just pushing another sequel. They are looking to package brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a typeface approach that signals a new vibe or a ensemble decision that reconnects a upcoming film to a classic era. At the alongside this, the helmers behind the most watched originals are returning to in-camera technique, practical effects and grounded locations. That mix provides 2026 a vital pairing of familiarity and invention, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two marquee pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, framing it as both a succession moment and a rootsy character study. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the authorial approach hints at a fan-service aware bent without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. A campaign is expected anchored in brand visuals, first-look character reveals, and a promo sequence hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also reboots 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 creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is straightforward, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man installs an AI companion that escalates into a fatal companion. The date locates it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s team likely to mirror uncanny live moments and brief clips that hybridizes longing and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a branding reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His projects are marketed as filmmaker events, with a hinting teaser and a next wave of trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The pre-Halloween slot allows Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has demonstrated that a blood-soaked, on-set effects led execution can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Look for a hard-R summer horror blast that pushes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, extending a bankable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is presenting as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both players and general audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign pieces around setting detail, and creature work, elements that can drive IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in careful craft and textual fidelity, this time focused on werewolf legend. The imprint has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is warm.

Streaming windows and tactics

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre slate move to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a cadence that maximizes both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the late-window. Prime Video combines acquired titles with worldwide entries and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, Halloween hubs, and curated rows to stretch the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix plays opportunist about in-house releases and festival additions, slotting horror entries closer to launch and positioning as event drops releases with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a one-two of selective theatrical runs and speedy platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a selective basis. The platform has signaled readiness to take on select projects with name filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly activity when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 lane with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clean: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the back half.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas corridor to expand. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-first horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception supports. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using targeted theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By weight, 2026 leans toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on franchise value. The question, as ever, is viewer burnout. The workable fix is to brand each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is foregrounding character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a continental coloration from a new voice. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the package is familiar enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Past-three-year patterns clarify the plan. In 2023, a theater-first model that held distribution windows did not deter a simultaneous release test from performing when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reorient and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward 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 shot consecutively, provides the means for marketing to cross-link entries through personae and themes and to keep materials circulating without long gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind 2026 horror forecast a continued tilt toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that centers unease and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft coverage 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 designed for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta recalibration that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature craft and set design, which are ideal for con floor moments and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is busy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid heftier brand moves. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

February through May load in summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

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

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a late-September window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a slow-reveal plan and limited disclosures that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s synthetic partner turns into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 prickly boss scramble to survive on a isolated island as the control balance swivels and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, driven by Cronin’s on-set craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. 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 intimate haunting scenario that leverages the chill of a child’s mercurial senses. Rating: TBA. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-supported and star-fronted supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A genre lampoon that pokes at modern genre fads and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. 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: TBD. Logline: The Further widens again, with a another family lashed to residual nightmares. Rating: forthcoming. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-core horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: pending. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBD. Production: continuing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and raw menace. Rating: TBD. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why this year, why now

Three execution-level forces organize this lineup. First, production that paused or rearranged in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often movies are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous 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 releases. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, freeing space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will compete across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first 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 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, right-sized allotments, and 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 tactility, aural design, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand gravity where needed, filmmaker vision 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, hold the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.