Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a bone chilling horror feature, bowing October 2025 across top digital platforms

This frightening spiritual suspense film from author / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an timeless fear when drifters become conduits in a cursed ordeal. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing chronicle of resilience and timeless dread that will remodel genre cinema this spooky time. Crafted by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and gothic film follows five unacquainted souls who suddenly rise confined in a wilderness-bound wooden structure under the menacing dominion of Kyra, a possessed female controlled by a ancient Old Testament spirit. Arm yourself to be gripped by a motion picture display that intertwines visceral dread with biblical origins, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a classic trope in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is radically shifted when the monsters no longer arise outside their bodies, but rather inside their minds. This illustrates the most hidden facet of the protagonists. The result is a intense inner struggle where the events becomes a intense battle between virtue and vice.


In a desolate no-man's-land, five characters find themselves marooned under the possessive grip and curse of a unidentified spirit. As the group becomes defenseless to resist her manipulation, severed and chased by entities beyond reason, they are forced to face their deepest fears while the seconds unceasingly winds toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease mounts and links break, coercing each character to challenge their core and the nature of volition itself. The tension mount with every heartbeat, delivering a nightmarish journey that marries mystical fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to uncover deep fear, an curse beyond time, emerging via emotional vulnerability, and highlighting a will that dismantles free will when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra was centered on something darker than pain. She is insensitive until the spirit seizes her, and that change is deeply unsettling because it is so unshielded.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring users no matter where they are can witness this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first trailer, which has attracted over strong viewer count.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, bringing the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Avoid skipping this unforgettable ride through nightmares. Enter *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to face these spiritual awakenings about free will.


For behind-the-scenes access, production news, and updates directly from production, follow @YACMovie across media channels and visit our horror hub.





Today’s horror sea change: the 2025 season domestic schedule melds archetypal-possession themes, Indie Shockers, stacked beside tentpole growls

Ranging from survivor-centric dread grounded in primordial scripture all the way to brand-name continuations alongside keen independent perspectives, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated combined with calculated campaign year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. the big studios set cornerstones with franchise anchors, at the same time streamers pack the fall with fresh voices alongside old-world menace. On the festival side, horror’s indie wing is catching the momentum from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, yet in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, therefore 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: The Return of Prestige Fear

The majors are assertive. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal banner leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a refashioned Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a modern-day environment. Led by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. dated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

At summer’s close, the Warner Bros. banner sets loose the finale from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson resumes command, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retrograde shiver, trauma as narrative engine, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time the stakes climb, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The continuation widens the legend, stretches the animatronic parade, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It hits in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Tight funds, wide impact

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a tight space body horror vignette pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight 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. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Franchise Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, led by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Signals and Trends

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

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

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Projection: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The forthcoming 2026 scare release year: next chapters, new stories, in tandem with A loaded Calendar tailored for nightmares

Dek: The fresh scare year crowds at the outset with a January cluster, subsequently unfolds through summer, and continuing into the holiday frame, braiding franchise firepower, original angles, and calculated alternatives. Distributors with platforms are embracing responsible budgets, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that convert genre releases into water-cooler talk.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror marketplace has proven to be the bankable play in distribution calendars, a category that can grow when it clicks and still hedge the risk when it does not. After the 2023 year showed top brass that responsibly budgeted horror vehicles can galvanize social chatter, 2024 carried the beat with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The upswing carried into 2025, where reawakened brands and critical darlings signaled there is demand for a spectrum, from sequel tracks to filmmaker-driven originals that resonate abroad. The result for 2026 is a lineup that seems notably aligned across the industry, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of known properties and untested plays, and a re-energized focus on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital rental and platforms.

Schedulers say the genre now functions as a utility player on the grid. Horror can open on almost any weekend, generate a grabby hook for spots and short-form placements, and lead with fans that arrive on first-look nights and continue through the second frame if the entry works. Post a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 mapping exhibits confidence in that approach. The calendar launches with a heavy January schedule, then leans on spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that pushes into the fright window and afterwards. The schedule also features the continuing integration of specialty arms and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, generate chatter, and move wide at the proper time.

A notable top-line trend is legacy care across shared IP webs and storied titles. Major shops are not just turning out another continuation. They are moving to present story carry-over with a premium feel, whether that is a brandmark that announces a tonal shift or a talent selection that bridges a latest entry to a first wave. At the same time, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to hands-on technique, real effects and distinct locales. That mix affords the 2026 slate a smart balance of assurance and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

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

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline plays that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, setting it up as both a relay and a back-to-basics character-forward chapter. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach announces a legacy-leaning mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected leaning on legacy iconography, first images of characters, and a trailer cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also brings back 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 centerpiece the campaign will play up. As a counterweight in summer, this one will go after wide buzz through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever dominates the discourse that spring.

Universal has three unique projects. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is simple, sorrow-tinged, and commercial: a grieving man adopts an intelligent companion that evolves into a deadly partner. The date slots it at the front of a busy month, with the marketing arm likely to revisit uncanny live moments and quick hits that melds companionship and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title drop to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His projects are marketed as director events, with a hinting teaser and a later creative that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot allows Universal to lead 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has consistently shown that a raw, in-camera leaning mix can feel top-tier on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror shot that maximizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio deploys two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, sustaining a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is describing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both diehards and first-timers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign creative around setting detail, and creature work, elements that can boost large-format demand and convention buzz.

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 maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by historical precision and language, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is positive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s slate shift to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a sequence that optimizes both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the after-window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed titles with international acquisitions and limited cinema engagements when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using curated hubs, October hubs, and handpicked rows to extend momentum on the annual genre haul. Netflix retains agility about Netflix originals and festival pickups, securing horror entries tight to release and elevating as drops rollouts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a two-step of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be key 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+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is simple: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, retooled for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for check over here fans of the savage series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the October weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas window to scale. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-driven genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception encourages. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using select theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their membership.

IP versus fresh ideas

By tilt, the 2026 slate tips toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use marquee value. The concern, as ever, is diminishing returns. The go-to fix is to brand each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is emphasizing character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-inflected take from a new voice. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and director-driven titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the assembly is assuring enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday previews.

Recent-year comps announce the logic. In 2023, a exclusive window model that honored streaming windows did not prevent a parallel release from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, precision craft horror exceeded expectations in premium formats. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reorient and grow scope. 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 hold creative in the market without pause points.

How the films are being made

The director conversations behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued turn toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that spotlights creep and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead press and department features before rolling out a tone piece that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for red-band excess, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and earns shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta inflection that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature design and production design, which favor convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that accent fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is packed. 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 atmospheric change-up amid headline IP. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tone spread makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

February through May seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a early fall window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a slow-reveal plan and limited teasers that favor idea over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads 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 loss-struck man’s artificial companion escalates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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: Produced consecutively 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss work to survive on a lonely island as the pecking order swivels and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to chill, anchored by Cronin’s practical effects and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting scenario that manipulates the panic of a child’s uncertain impressions. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-crafted and A-list fronted occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A parody return that skewers contemporary horror memes and true-crime manias. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. 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 detonates, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new clan linked to lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-core horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBD. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBD. Production: ongoing. 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 time-true diction and elemental menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why this year, why now

Three operational forces structure this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical 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 landings. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate shareable moments from test screenings, managed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

A fourth factor is programming math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 chilly, 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 escalate across the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, smart allocations, 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 detail, sound field, 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is franchise muscle where it helps, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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, deliver taut trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the chills sell the seats.