Age-old Dread Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising shocker, landing October 2025 across premium platforms

This terrifying ghostly terror film from narrative craftsman / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an mythic dread when drifters become proxies in a demonic struggle. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful story of resistance and prehistoric entity that will revolutionize terror storytelling this cool-weather season. Directed by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and gothic fearfest follows five young adults who are stirred isolated in a far-off house under the dark control of Kyra, a possessed female consumed by a biblical-era biblical force. Ready yourself to be shaken by a narrative journey that harmonizes deep-seated panic with mystical narratives, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a well-established tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is subverted when the malevolences no longer form from elsewhere, but rather within themselves. This echoes the malevolent side of every character. The result is a bone-chilling emotional conflict where the story becomes a intense push-pull between innocence and sin.


In a isolated terrain, five individuals find themselves trapped under the malevolent influence and domination of a unidentified spirit. As the youths becomes defenseless to escape her will, stranded and tracked by forces impossible to understand, they are obligated to battle their core terrors while the clock without pause ticks toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease deepens and relationships shatter, driving each cast member to evaluate their identity and the notion of liberty itself. The consequences rise with every breath, delivering a scare-fueled ride that harmonizes otherworldly suspense with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to evoke primal fear, an evil from prehistory, feeding on our fears, and dealing with a force that questions who we are when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra was about accessing something past sanity. She is ignorant until the evil takes hold, and that shift is eerie because it is so raw.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be available for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring horror lovers globally can face this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its initial teaser, which has racked up over 100K plays.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, exporting the fear to viewers around the world.


Join this mind-warping path of possession. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to survive these evil-rooted truths about the psyche.


For previews, extra content, and updates from the creators, follow @YACFilm across entertainment pages and visit the official digital haunt.





The horror genre’s decisive shift: the year 2025 American release plan interlaces legend-infused possession, signature indie scares, together with franchise surges

From survivor-centric dread saturated with ancient scripture all the way to legacy revivals plus pointed art-house angles, 2025 is lining up as the genre’s most multifaceted along with blueprinted year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio majors set cornerstones with established lines, even as streamers pack the fall with new perspectives alongside primordial unease. Across the art-house lane, the independent cohort is surfing the uplift of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are precise, hence 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal banner fires the first shot with a statement play: a reimagined Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. landing in 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 adaptation reframed as lean dread. Directed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Initial heat flags it as potent.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s schedule unveils the final movement from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: throwback unease, trauma driven plotting, plus otherworld rules that chill. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, grows the animatronic horror lineup, reaching teens and game grownups. It arrives in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Originals: No Budget, No Problem

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a sealed box body horror arc fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a clever angle. No bloated mythology. No brand fatigue. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

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 box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

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 drops late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

What to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

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

Streamers grow fangs
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn density and winter pivot

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 like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

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 mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The approaching fright calendar year ahead: Sequels, original films, together with A brimming Calendar engineered for Scares

Dek: The brand-new horror season lines up from the jump with a January pile-up, after that flows through midyear, and running into the holiday frame, balancing brand heft, new concepts, and strategic release strategy. Major distributors and platforms are embracing smart costs, box-office-first windows, and social-fueled campaigns that convert horror entries into national conversation.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has shown itself to be the sturdy move in studio calendars, a segment that can scale when it performs and still buffer the downside when it fails to connect. After 2023 reassured greenlighters that low-to-mid budget pictures can lead cultural conversation, the following year maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and unexpected risers. The momentum moved into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and elevated films made clear there is a market for different modes, from returning installments to director-led originals that play globally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a grid that shows rare alignment across studios, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of legacy names and novel angles, and a reinvigorated priority on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium home window and subscription services.

Schedulers say the genre now slots in as a fill-in ace on the rollout map. The genre can open on virtually any date, supply a simple premise for promo reels and short-form placements, and over-index with ticket buyers that come out on opening previews and sustain through the sophomore frame if the entry hits. After a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 rhythm indicates trust in that playbook. The calendar gets underway with a stacked January band, then taps spring and early summer for balance, while reserving space for a October build that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and past the holiday. The layout also underscores the tightening integration of specialized imprints and platforms that can launch in limited release, create conversation, and move wide at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is IP cultivation across brand ecosystems and established properties. The players are not just producing another chapter. They are working to present connection with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a new vibe or a ensemble decision that reconnects a incoming chapter to a first wave. At the same time, the filmmakers behind the most buzzed-about originals are embracing on-set craft, special makeup and location-forward worlds. That fusion produces the 2026 slate a robust balance of recognition and newness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

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

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline plays that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, setting it up as both a handoff and a back-to-basics character piece. Production is active in Atlanta, and the creative stance indicates a memory-charged campaign without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected leaning on brand visuals, character spotlights, and a trailer cadence hitting 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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will generate broad awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick pivots to whatever leads the discourse that spring.

Universal has three distinct lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tidy, loss-driven, and big-hook: a grieving man brings home an synthetic partner that turns into a murderous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s campaign likely to bring back eerie street stunts and quick hits that melds companionship and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title drop to become an attention spike closer to the opening teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele titles are set up as filmmaker events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The spooky-season slot affords Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has demonstrated that a blood-soaked, on-set effects led aesthetic can feel prestige on a moderate cost. Look for a blood-soaked summer horror rush that embraces global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, keeping a bankable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is calling 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 clearer mandate to serve both devotees and new audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around lore, and monster design, elements that can accelerate premium screens and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in meticulous craft and historical speech, this time set against lycan legends. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is strong.

Digital platform strategies

Platform tactics for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal titles feed copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a cadence that fortifies both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up spikes in the downstream. Prime Video will mix third-party pickups with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog discovery, using editorial spots, seasonal hubs, and staff picks to extend momentum on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps flexible about originals and festival grabs, slotting horror entries closer to launch and making event-like premieres with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a staged of tailored theatrical exposure and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to purchase select projects with name filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 lane 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 no-nonsense: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, reimagined for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday corridor to scale. That positioning has helped for arthouse horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception drives. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their audience.

Brands and originals

By volume, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit legacy awareness. The trade-off, as ever, is brand erosion. The practical approach is to pitch each entry as a new angle. Paramount is foregrounding core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a Francophone tone from a ascendant talent. Those choices register when the audience has so useful reference many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the bundle is steady enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night crowds.

The last three-year set frame the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept clean windows did not stop a simultaneous release test from paying off when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror surged in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they angle differently and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to interlace chapters through character arcs and themes and to keep materials circulating without lulls.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The director conversations behind the upcoming entries hint at a continued shift toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that emphasizes tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that withholds plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta refresh that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature and environment design, which lend themselves to convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel primary. Look for trailers that accent surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that explode in larger rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is loaded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid heavier IP. The month wraps 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 stiff, but the tonal variety creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

August and September into October leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that elevate concept over story.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s synthetic partner shifts into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: atmospheric 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 demanding boss claw to survive on a rugged island as the pecking order turns and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s physical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting tale that interrogates the terror of a child’s wobbly read. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-built and star-fronted haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A comic send-up that satirizes current genre trends and true crime fixations. Rating: TBD. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new clan entangled with lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on pure survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBD. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBD. Production: ongoing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 historical diction and primordial menace. Rating: TBA. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026, why now

Three grounded forces organize this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-slotted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming launches. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work turnkey scare beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, offering breathing room for genre entries that can control a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 underdog chase 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, 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 array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, 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 gain momentum, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, soundscape, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is IP strength where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.