Ancient Dread Surfaces within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror feature, launching Oct 2025 on premium platforms

This blood-curdling unearthly terror film from writer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an forgotten dread when unknowns become tools in a supernatural experiment. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful journey of resistance and prehistoric entity that will resculpt the fear genre this ghoul season. Guided by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and moody feature follows five lost souls who awaken locked in a cut-off cottage under the sinister manipulation of Kyra, a possessed female claimed by a prehistoric biblical demon. Anticipate to be gripped by a audio-visual outing that unites intense horror with mystical narratives, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a legendary foundation in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is turned on its head when the beings no longer arise beyond the self, but rather from their core. This echoes the most terrifying corner of the group. The result is a edge-of-seat psychological battle where the story becomes a perpetual fight between good and evil.


In a isolated wilderness, five characters find themselves confined under the malevolent force and possession of a uncanny female figure. As the victims becomes unable to withstand her command, stranded and preyed upon by powers unimaginable, they are compelled to encounter their inner horrors while the countdown without pity ticks onward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear amplifies and relationships dissolve, pushing each protagonist to reconsider their personhood and the principle of decision-making itself. The hazard rise with every instant, delivering a nightmarish journey that integrates occult fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to evoke pure dread, an spirit beyond time, manifesting in human fragility, and wrestling with a will that questions who we are when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra required summoning something beneath mortal despair. She is insensitive until the curse activates, and that metamorphosis is deeply unsettling because it is so personal.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be released for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering households in all regions can enjoy this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its original clip, which has received over 100,000 views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, taking the terror to international horror buffs.


Join this haunted trip into the unknown. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to see these unholy truths about our species.


For bonus footage, making-of footage, and alerts from those who lived it, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across online outlets and visit the movie portal.





Today’s horror major pivot: 2025 U.S. lineup braids together old-world possession, independent shockers, set against franchise surges

Moving from grit-forward survival fare rooted in scriptural legend and onward to returning series in concert with focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as the genre’s most multifaceted along with carefully orchestrated year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. the big studios set cornerstones by way of signature titles, while streamers prime the fall with emerging auteurs as well as scriptural shivers. Meanwhile, the art-house flank is catching the tailwinds of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the other windows are mapped with care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are methodical, therefore 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline leads off the quarter with a headline swing: a modernized Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. set for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Directed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

At summer’s close, the Warner Bros. banner releases the last chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the tone that worked before is intact: old school creep, trauma as text, and a cold supernatural calculus. This run ups the stakes, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It arrives in December, buttoning the final window.

Digital Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

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

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, 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 chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. That is a savvy move. No heavy handed lore. No continuity burden. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

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

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Heritage Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

What to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror swings back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

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

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Season Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The next scare Year Ahead: returning titles, universe starters, together with A packed Calendar aimed at chills

Dek: The new genre calendar stacks from the jump with a January wave, and then spreads through midyear, and running into the late-year period, blending brand equity, inventive spins, and well-timed counterweight. Studios and streamers are leaning into smart costs, theatrical leads, and buzz-forward plans that shape these offerings into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror marketplace has grown into the steady release in studio slates, a vertical that can accelerate when it hits and still cushion the downside when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year proved to buyers that lean-budget chillers can dominate the national conversation, the following year held pace with buzzy auteur projects and word-of-mouth wins. The trend carried into 2025, where reboots and festival-grade titles made clear there is an opening for multiple flavors, from brand follow-ups to non-IP projects that translate worldwide. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a run that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with planned clusters, a balance of brand names and new pitches, and a renewed focus on theatrical windows that drive downstream revenue on premium video on demand and streaming.

Executives say the category now serves as a utility player on the distribution slate. Horror can roll out on many corridors, supply a clear pitch for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and exceed norms with moviegoers that lean in on Thursday previews and maintain momentum through the second weekend if the title satisfies. Exiting a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 cadence shows faith in that equation. The year rolls out with a front-loaded January stretch, then leans on spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while holding room for a fall cadence that carries into All Hallows period and into early November. The schedule also includes the increasing integration of indie distributors and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and scale up at the inflection point.

A second macro trend is brand strategy across brand ecosystems and long-running brands. The studios are not just producing another installment. They are aiming to frame ongoing narrative with a heightened moment, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a reframed mood or a ensemble decision that reconnects a new entry to a first wave. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the most buzzed-about originals are favoring practical craft, practical gags and location-forward worlds. That fusion produces 2026 a healthy mix of recognition and newness, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount defines the early cadence with two centerpiece entries that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, signaling it as both a baton pass and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture suggests a fan-service aware treatment without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign stacked with iconic art, first-look character reveals, and a tiered teaser plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will generate mass reach through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format inviting quick reframes to whatever owns genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, heartbroken, and big-hook: a grieving man implements an intelligent companion that escalates into a harmful mate. The date lines it up at the front of a front-loaded month, with marketing at Universal likely to bring back eerie street stunts and snackable content that melds romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a name unveil to become an earned moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s work are marketed as auteur events, with a opaque teaser and a later creative that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor creates space for Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a in-your-face, hands-on effects execution can feel big on a moderate cost. Position this as a gore-forward summer horror blast that maximizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, keeping a evergreen supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is calling a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around mythos, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive premium booking interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on minute detail and language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform tactics for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre slate transition to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that enhances both premiere heat and platform bumps in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix third-party pickups with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using editorial spots, fright rows, and editorial rows to extend momentum on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival deals, confirming horror entries with shorter lead times and framing as events drops with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a tiered of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that translates talk to trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to buy select projects with top-tier auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is straightforward: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, retooled for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, guiding the film through festival season if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday dates to move out. That positioning has delivered for prestige horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception warrants. Be ready for 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 jointly, using limited runs to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By proportion, 2026 tilts in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use household recognition. The challenge, as ever, is fatigue. The workable fix is to present each entry as a new angle. Paramount is foregrounding character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-flavored turn from a rising filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and auteur plays bring the 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, features Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the team and cast is recognizable enough to generate pre-sales and first-night audiences.

The last three-year set clarify the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that honored streaming windows did not hamper a day-date move from hitting when the brand was compelling. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror punched above its weight in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they alter lens and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, provides the means for marketing to relate entries through character web and themes and to leave creative active without hiatuses.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft conversations behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued turn toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that centers grain and menace rather than CG roller-coasters, 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 medieval world and medieval diction, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft coverage before rolling out a tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature execution and sets, which fit with con floor moments and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

The schedule at a glance

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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tone spread carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Q1 into Q2 prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a opaque tease strategy and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s intelligent companion escalates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss struggle to survive on a rugged island as the control dynamic swivels and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fear, shaped by Cronin’s in-camera craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 domestic haunting premise that routes the horror through a youngster’s volatile perspective. Rating: to be announced. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

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 parody reboot that pokes at today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a another family entangled with past horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-core horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBD. Production: proceeding. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 era-accurate language and raw menace. Rating: TBD. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 shifting, fall likely.

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 required this website schedule breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined 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 premieres. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on social-ready stingers from test screenings, precision scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 cost-efficient 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, audio design, and imagery 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 Is Well Positioned

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is name recognition where it counts, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shocks sell the seats.