Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primeval horror, a pulse pounding shocker, premiering Oct 2025 on major streaming services

One unnerving paranormal suspense film from literary architect / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an long-buried curse when passersby become subjects in a cursed contest. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing tale of resilience and primordial malevolence that will revolutionize terror storytelling this cool-weather season. Created by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and cinematic cinema piece follows five unknowns who arise trapped in a off-grid cottage under the dark grip of Kyra, a mysterious girl dominated by a 2,000-year-old Old Testament spirit. Steel yourself to be enthralled by a cinematic experience that merges raw fear with timeless legends, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a classic concept in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is flipped when the dark entities no longer arise from external sources, but rather from their core. This mirrors the most terrifying version of the cast. The result is a riveting cognitive warzone where the narrative becomes a perpetual struggle between heaven and hell.


In a desolate wilderness, five individuals find themselves sealed under the fiendish presence and haunting of a obscure being. As the survivors becomes helpless to deny her influence, exiled and chased by powers impossible to understand, they are thrust to wrestle with their soulful dreads while the final hour brutally draws closer toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety rises and ties fracture, pressuring each character to doubt their self and the idea of personal agency itself. The stakes magnify with every heartbeat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that merges otherworldly suspense with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to evoke ancestral fear, an darkness older than civilization itself, embedding itself in fragile psyche, and confronting a darkness that threatens selfhood when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra demanded embodying something past sanity. She is ignorant until the spirit seizes her, and that metamorphosis is gut-wrenching because it is so emotional.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring watchers from coast to coast can face this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its initial teaser, which has earned over strong viewer count.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, bringing the film to viewers around the world.


Tune in for this gripping exploration of dread. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to witness these haunting secrets about inner darkness.


For sneak peeks, production insights, and announcements from the creators, follow @YACMovie across entertainment pages and visit the official website.





Today’s horror pivotal crossroads: 2025 in focus U.S. release slate fuses myth-forward possession, independent shockers, in parallel with tentpole growls

Beginning with survival horror suffused with ancient scripture all the way to legacy revivals alongside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the richest in tandem with strategic year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Top studios lay down anchors by way of signature titles, in tandem SVOD players prime the fall with discovery plays in concert with ancient terrors. On the independent axis, the artisan tier is surfing the carry of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are surgical, which means 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal camp lights the fuse with a headline swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a modern-day environment. Directed by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. landing in mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Steered by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer tapers, the Warner lot delivers the closing chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson is back, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: retrograde shiver, trauma in the foreground, plus otherworld rules that chill. Here the stakes rise, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It lands in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

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

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the quieter side is Together, a room scale body horror descent starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No overinflated mythology. No sequel clutter. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. 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 forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

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

Legacy Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Emerging Currents

Mythic dread mainstreams
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 exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror swings back
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forecast: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 fright release year: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, together with A stacked Calendar designed for shocks

Dek The incoming horror season loads immediately with a January crush, following that extends through summer corridors, and straight through the holiday stretch, mixing IP strength, new voices, and strategic offsets. Studio marketers and platforms are betting on right-sized spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and short-form initiatives that elevate genre releases into broad-appeal conversations.

Where horror stands going into 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the steady move in studio calendars, a segment that can accelerate when it hits and still hedge the floor when it stumbles. After the 2023 year reassured executives that mid-range genre plays can own the national conversation, the following year kept the drumbeat going with high-profile filmmaker pieces and unexpected risers. The energy translated to the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and festival-grade titles made clear there is a lane for several lanes, from ongoing IP entries to original one-offs that export nicely. The sum for the 2026 slate is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across the market, with purposeful groupings, a spread of legacy names and original hooks, and a sharpened emphasis on box-office windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on PVOD and SVOD.

Distribution heads claim the category now works like a wildcard on the calendar. Horror can open on most weekends, furnish a easy sell for promo reels and reels, and lead with fans that lean in on Thursday previews and maintain momentum through the second weekend if the offering connects. On the heels of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 plan shows belief in that equation. The slate commences with a thick January band, then leans on spring and early summer for contrast, while saving space for a fall corridor that connects to late October and beyond. The schedule also reflects the expanded integration of specialized labels and home platforms that can launch in limited release, generate chatter, and roll out at the precise moment.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across shared IP webs and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just greenlighting another entry. They are setting up brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a reframed mood or a lead change that anchors a next film to a classic era. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the eagerly awaited originals are prioritizing physical effects work, practical gags and grounded locations. That interplay gives the 2026 slate a lively combination of home base and shock, which is how the genre sells abroad.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount marks the early tempo with two big-ticket projects that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the core, setting it up as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward character-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the directional approach announces a roots-evoking mode without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push centered on heritage visuals, first-look character reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will feature. As a summer relief option, this one will pursue large awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick updates to whatever leads trend lines that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is efficient, tragic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man purchases an synthetic partner that mutates into a deadly partner. The date locates it at the front of a stacked January, with marketing at Universal likely to replay creepy live activations and quick hits that hybridizes devotion and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a branding reveal to become an PR pop closer to the initial promo. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. His projects are treated as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has demonstrated that a raw, hands-on effects treatment can feel high-value on a lean spend. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror hit that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, carrying a bankable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is marketing as a new take 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 directive to serve both core fans and newcomers. The fall slot lets Sony to build artifacts around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify premium format interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror defined by rigorous craft and dialect, this time engaging werewolf myth. The distributor has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is glowing.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform plans for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s releases transition to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a stair-step that maximizes both premiere heat and sign-up momentum in the back half. Prime Video will mix catalogue additions with global acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their edges in deep cuts, using editorial spots, October hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on the 2026 genre total. Netflix stays nimble about own-slate titles and festival buys, securing horror entries toward the drop and coalescing around go-lives with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a tiered of targeted cinema placements and short jumps to platform that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a selective basis. The platform has indicated interest to acquire select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is tight: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, refined for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a theatrical rollout for the title, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the back half.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception supports. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using boutique theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their membership.

Brands and originals

By weight, 2026 leans toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The go-to fix is to brand each entry as a new angle. Paramount is spotlighting character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a European tilt from a fresh helmer. 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 treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the package is recognizable enough to drive advance ticketing and advance-audience nights.

Past-three-year patterns contextualize the model. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that held distribution windows did not obstruct a dual release from winning when the brand was potent. In 2024, director-craft horror surged in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reframe POV and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, gives leeway to marketing to tie installments through personae and themes and to keep assets alive without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind 2026 horror indicate a continued move toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that highlights tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the grimmest 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 earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that elevates tone over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature and environment design, which favor fan-con activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that spotlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that play in premium auditoriums.

Release calendar overview

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

Q1 into Q2 prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now backs 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

August and September into October leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited information drops that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s intelligent companion grows into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 abrasive boss claw to survive on a uninhabited island as the power dynamic my company turns and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to nightmare, anchored by Cronin’s material craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that pipes the unease through a youngster’s volatile inner lens. Rating: to be announced. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed 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 re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that lampoons today’s horror trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: pending. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new clan caught in older hauntings. Rating: forthcoming. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-core horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in progress. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or migrated in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, curated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will share space 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 make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where midrange-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 unexpected breakout 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. Expect a healthy 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sonics, and camera work 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

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand power where it counts, new vision where it lands, 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, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.