Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, landing Oct 2025 on major streaming services

A chilling mystic thriller from storyteller / director Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an prehistoric malevolence when strangers become conduits in a demonic ceremony. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing narrative of survival and primordial malevolence that will resculpt horror this ghoul season. Created by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and atmospheric motion picture follows five lost souls who snap to trapped in a hidden structure under the ominous influence of Kyra, a troubled woman haunted by a millennia-old holy text monster. Be warned to be ensnared by a narrative venture that weaves together gut-punch terror with ancient myths, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a legendary fixture in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is twisted when the beings no longer descend from an outside force, but rather inside them. This illustrates the shadowy version of the players. The result is a relentless inner struggle where the intensity becomes a intense battle between divinity and wickedness.


In a remote wild, five souls find themselves cornered under the ominous sway and possession of a unknown female figure. As the cast becomes helpless to deny her power, exiled and stalked by powers unfathomable, they are made to battle their inner demons while the hours mercilessly draws closer toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion amplifies and links implode, prompting each soul to rethink their personhood and the idea of self-determination itself. The pressure grow with every instant, delivering a cinematic nightmare that marries demonic fright with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to tap into core terror, an spirit born of forgotten ages, channeling itself through soul-level flaws, and questioning a entity that questions who we are when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant evoking something darker than pain. She is blind until the entity awakens, and that change is haunting because it is so visceral.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that watchers worldwide can watch this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its intro video, which has collected over massive response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, taking the terror to fans of fear everywhere.


Avoid skipping this bone-rattling journey into fear. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to dive into these ghostly lessons about free will.


For director insights, production news, and press updates via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursed across platforms and visit the movie portal.





Today’s horror watershed moment: the 2025 cycle U.S. Slate integrates primeval-possession lore, Indie Shockers, alongside returning-series thunder

Across pressure-cooker survival tales suffused with legendary theology as well as returning series alongside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated combined with blueprinted year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. leading studios hold down the year with franchise anchors, while OTT services load up the fall with debut heat together with ancestral chills. On another front, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, however this time, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are exacting, so 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige terror resurfaces

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal Pictures lights the fuse with an audacious swing: a modernized Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Booked into 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 conversion presented as stripped terror. Directed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

At summer’s close, the Warner Bros. banner bows the concluding entry from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson returns, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma centered writing, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time the stakes climb, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It drops in December, cornering year end horror.

Platform Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

The 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. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. 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. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of 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 is a smart play. No overinflated mythology. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Long Running Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. 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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror comes roaring back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Badges become bargaining chips
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theaters are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

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

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The oncoming Horror lineup: next chapters, new stories, in tandem with A busy Calendar designed for chills

Dek The upcoming scare calendar stacks early with a January glut, and then carries through the mid-year, and far into the December corridor, fusing name recognition, novel approaches, and tactical counter-scheduling. Studios with streamers are focusing on cost discipline, exclusive theatrical windows first, and short-form initiatives that pivot these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

How the genre looks for 2026

This space has solidified as the dependable swing in release strategies, a corner that can accelerate when it connects and still mitigate the floor when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for decision-makers that modestly budgeted chillers can own social chatter, 2024 carried the beat with director-led heat and sleeper breakouts. The carry moved into 2025, where resurrections and arthouse crossovers underscored there is capacity for different modes, from ongoing IP entries to original one-offs that play globally. The upshot for 2026 is a grid that looks unusually coordinated across studios, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of legacy names and untested plays, and a re-energized eye on box-office windows that power the aftermarket on PVOD and streaming.

Planners observe the category now operates like a plug-and-play option on the distribution slate. Horror can open on numerous frames, furnish a grabby hook for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and exceed norms with moviegoers that appear on advance nights and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the movie hits. Coming out of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence demonstrates conviction in that engine. The calendar rolls out with a stacked January schedule, then turns to spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while reserving space for a autumn push that connects to the Halloween frame and into early November. The map also highlights the increasing integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can platform a title, build word of mouth, and grow at the inflection point.

An added macro current is series management across interlocking continuities and established properties. Major shops are not just making another return. They are moving to present lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a title presentation that announces a reframed mood or a talent selection that reconnects a new entry to a foundational era. At the very same time, the directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are favoring material texture, makeup and prosthetics and concrete locations. That blend delivers 2026 a vital pairing of trust and novelty, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two marquee moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the spine, angling it as both a lineage transfer and a rootsy character-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the tonal posture suggests a fan-service aware strategy without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with franchise iconography, character previews, and a tiered teaser plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a summer alternative, this one will build four-quadrant chatter through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format permitting quick adjustments to whatever shapes genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three differentiated lanes. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is clean, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man purchases an intelligent companion that shifts into a lethal partner. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to replay uncanny-valley stunts and bite-size content that blurs attachment and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s work are marketed as signature events, with a minimalist tease and a subsequent trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The late-October frame creates space for Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has consistently shown that a blood-soaked, practical-first aesthetic can feel top-tier on a tight budget. Frame it as a red-band summer horror shock that maximizes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio books two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, holding a evergreen supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is framing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both franchise faithful and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build artifacts around world-building, and creature builds, elements that can drive deluxe auditorium demand and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places 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 built on historical precision and period speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The imprint has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

How the platforms plan to play it

Windowing plans in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre slate move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a cadence that expands both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the later window. Prime Video stitches together library titles with global originals and brief theater runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog engagement, using curated hubs, holiday hubs, and featured rows to stretch the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about internal projects and festival snaps, finalizing horror entries near their drops and staging as events premieres with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a two-step of selective theatrical runs and rapid platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown a willingness to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation spikes.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 track with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is tight: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, retooled for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday slot to expand. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-first horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception supports. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using boutique theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By tilt, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is staleness. The standing approach is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is spotlighting character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a European tilt from a emerging director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and director-driven titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the team and cast is known enough to drive advance ticketing and advance-audience nights.

The last three-year set help explain the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept streaming intact did not stop a hybrid test from winning when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in premium formats. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they shift POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through character web and themes and to continue assets in field without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind these films suggest a continued shift toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that highlights tone and tension rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta refresh that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster work and world-building, which fit with fan-con activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that center pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that explode in larger rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is full. 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 somber counterpoint amid marquee brands. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the tone spread creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth endures.

February through May load in summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

August into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a late-September window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a peekaboo tease plan and limited asset reveals that favor idea over plot.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genetic code. 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 bereaved man’s artificial companion escalates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 hard-edged boss scramble to survive on a remote island as the control dynamic reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-front survival film 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 renewed vision that returns the monster to fear, based on Cronin’s physical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting scenario that teases the terror of a child’s inconsistent senses. Rating: TBD. Production: post-ready. Positioning: major-studio and headline-actor led eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A comic send-up that targets of-the-moment horror beats and true my review here crime preoccupations. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a fresh family caught in past horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: pending. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in classic survival-horror tone over action spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: proceeding. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and primordial menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 lands now

Three operational forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that downshifted or reshuffled in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and condensed timelines. 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest clippable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will jostle across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where modest-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 quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sound field, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in Young & Cursed New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the Young & Cursed job is simple, produce clean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.