Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streamers

A blood-curdling supernatural horror tale from storyteller / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an archaic fear when unfamiliar people become pawns in a cursed experiment. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving chronicle of continuance and prehistoric entity that will remodel horror this fall. Created by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and moody feature follows five people who suddenly rise stuck in a wilderness-bound wooden structure under the menacing influence of Kyra, a tormented girl overtaken by a prehistoric biblical force. Ready yourself to be captivated by a motion picture ride that unites deep-seated panic with folklore, releasing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a iconic narrative in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is turned on its head when the presences no longer emerge beyond the self, but rather within themselves. This symbolizes the most terrifying side of the victims. The result is a bone-chilling mind game where the tension becomes a unyielding clash between virtue and vice.


In a forsaken terrain, five adults find themselves caught under the unholy control and infestation of a enigmatic woman. As the team becomes powerless to resist her manipulation, marooned and hunted by unknowns beyond reason, they are obligated to deal with their inner horrors while the clock brutally winds toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear builds and friendships shatter, compelling each survivor to rethink their true nature and the foundation of decision-making itself. The stakes mount with every tick, delivering a paranormal ride that integrates mystical fear with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to tap into primal fear, an curse beyond time, channeling itself through fragile psyche, and dealing with a curse that peels away humanity when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra required summoning something darker than pain. She is unseeing until the takeover begins, and that shift is shocking because it is so internal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for streaming beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing subscribers no matter where they are can watch this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original promo, which has collected over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, offering the tale to viewers around the world.


Witness this heart-stopping spiral into evil. Watch *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to face these evil-rooted truths about human nature.


For previews, production insights, and promotions via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across entertainment pages and visit youngandcursed.com.





Modern horror’s decisive shift: 2025 for genre fans U.S. Slate fuses biblical-possession ideas, independent shockers, together with brand-name tremors

From last-stand terror rooted in primordial scripture through to franchise returns in concert with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 stands to become the most textured plus calculated campaign year of the last decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Top studios hold down the year using marquee IP, simultaneously streamers stack the fall with debut heat set against ancient terrors. On another front, the independent cohort is buoyed by the kinetic energy from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A fat September–October lane is customary now, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are targeted, hence 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige terror resurfaces

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal banner leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a modernized Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a sharp contemporary setting. Directed by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Booked into mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer winds down, the Warner Bros. banner sets loose the finale inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re boards, and those signature textures resurface: period tinged dread, trauma as theme, with ghostly inner logic. Here the stakes rise, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It lands in December, locking down the winter tail.

Digital Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror duet starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend featuring Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a clever angle. No overinflated mythology. No legacy baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight 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 introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Long Running Lines: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror resurges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Near Term Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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 such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The upcoming fright calendar year ahead: returning titles, standalone ideas, together with A stacked Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek: The current terror calendar lines up in short order with a January wave, from there carries through the warm months, and well into the holiday stretch, balancing series momentum, untold stories, and calculated counter-scheduling. Studios and streamers are betting on responsible budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate these releases into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The genre has emerged as the steady lever in studio slates, a pillar that can grow when it performs and still cushion the exposure when it falls short. After 2023 reconfirmed for top brass that modestly budgeted shockers can command the zeitgeist, 2024 maintained heat with signature-voice projects and slow-burn breakouts. The tailwind carried into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and prestige plays underscored there is an opening for several lanes, from continued chapters to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The sum for the 2026 slate is a slate that seems notably aligned across studios, with mapped-out bands, a equilibrium of familiar brands and new pitches, and a recommitted priority on theatrical windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium video on demand and subscription services.

Executives say the horror lane now functions as a schedule utility on the programming map. Horror can debut on virtually any date, generate a clear pitch for marketing and reels, and punch above weight with fans that respond on advance nights and continue through the follow-up frame if the movie works. Exiting a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 setup exhibits assurance in that playbook. The slate kicks off with a stacked January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for balance, while making space for a fall corridor that reaches into the Halloween frame and into November. The map also underscores the increasing integration of specialized imprints and home platforms that can platform and widen, create conversation, and grow at the precise moment.

A parallel macro theme is legacy care across shared universes and veteran brands. Major shops are not just turning out another next film. They are seeking to position lore continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a title design that signals a reframed mood or a casting pivot that links a new entry to a initial period. At the meanwhile, the auteurs behind the most anticipated originals are embracing real-world builds, practical gags and location-forward worlds. That convergence delivers the 2026 slate a lively combination of brand comfort and freshness, which is the formula for international play.

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

Paramount fires first with two spotlight moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the heart, positioning the film as both a passing of the torch and a classic-mode character piece. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance indicates a heritage-honoring treatment without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push centered on signature symbols, first images of characters, and a promo sequence timed to late fall. Distribution is theatrical through 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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will emphasize. As a summer contrast play, this one will generate mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format inviting quick turns to whatever drives the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three unique strategies. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is crisp, heartbroken, and commercial: a grieving man brings home an intelligent companion that unfolds into a deadly partner. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with marketing at Universal likely to iterate on uncanny-valley stunts and short-cut promos that melds love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a public title to become an PR pop closer to the first trailer. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. The filmmaker’s films are presented as event films, with a opaque teaser and a later creative that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor opens a lane to dominate 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has demonstrated that a gnarly, prosthetic-heavy method can feel top-tier on a moderate cost. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror rush that spotlights global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio rolls out two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, sustaining a reliable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is selling as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both diehards and general audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build artifacts around canon, and creature builds, elements that can stoke deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in textural authenticity and language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The imprint has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies get redirected here for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a tiered path that optimizes both launch urgency and subscriber lifts in the tail. Prime Video balances licensed titles with worldwide buys and select theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in archive usage, using editorial spots, spooky hubs, and curated rows to increase tail value on 2026 genre cume. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix originals and festival additions, scheduling horror entries tight to release and positioning as event drops drops with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a hybrid of targeted cinema placements and short jumps to platform that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a discrete basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to take on select projects with acclaimed directors or star packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 sequence with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, recalibrated for modern mix and grade. 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 announced a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then working the holiday slot to go wider. That positioning has served the company well for craft-driven horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception supports. Be ready 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 concert, using small theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their membership.

Brands and originals

By count, 2026 leans in favor of the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on name recognition. The question, as ever, is fatigue. The practical approach is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is underscoring character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French sensibility from a ascendant talent. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the package is assuring enough to generate pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Comparable trends from recent years contextualize the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept streaming intact did not deter a dual release from working when the brand was trusted. In 2024, art-forward horror popped in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they angle differently and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, lets marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to hold creative in the market without doldrums.

Creative tendencies and craft

The filmmaking conversations behind these films suggest a continued shift toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that centers tone and tension rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead press and artisan spotlights before rolling out a preview that keeps plot minimal, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta-horror reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature design and production design, which fit with con floor moments and selective weblink drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that highlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that play in premium auditoriums.

How the year maps out

January is loaded. Universal’s 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 moody palate cleanser amid larger brand plays. The month closes 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 meaningful, but the spread of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late winter and spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers see here gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late summer into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a early fall window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a peekaboo tease plan and limited disclosures that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genes. 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 machine mate unfolds into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: fog-and-fear adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss battle to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power tilts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to dread, grounded in Cronin’s material craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting narrative that threads the dread through a youngster’s wavering subjective view. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house 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 genre lampoon that satirizes present-day genre chatter and true crime fervors. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras due to roll 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 flares, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a unlucky family caught in ancient dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-first horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing. 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 period-precise speech and elemental dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026, why now

Three operational forces inform this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-sequenced in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work repeatable beats from test screenings, select scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, 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 underdog chase 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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, 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 pace and range. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient screen counts, 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 grain, soundcraft, and cinematography 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, Lined Up To Scare

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand gravity where needed, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.