Age-old Terror stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling horror feature, landing Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

An terrifying paranormal nightmare movie from screenwriter / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an prehistoric force when strangers become victims in a devilish contest. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful journey of overcoming and age-old darkness that will reimagine fear-driven cinema this cool-weather season. Directed by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and gothic feature follows five teens who emerge stranded in a wilderness-bound house under the unfriendly influence of Kyra, a possessed female overtaken by a antiquated ancient fiend. Ready yourself to be gripped by a visual outing that melds primitive horror with mystical narratives, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a legendary motif in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is turned on its head when the dark entities no longer manifest from external sources, but rather inside their minds. This echoes the most primal corner of the players. The result is a psychologically brutal spiritual tug-of-war where the story becomes a intense face-off between right and wrong.


In a bleak terrain, five friends find themselves trapped under the malevolent aura and infestation of a elusive woman. As the characters becomes vulnerable to deny her curse, exiled and targeted by terrors ungraspable, they are made to encounter their deepest fears while the deathwatch without pity ticks onward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear builds and alliances dissolve, requiring each person to question their core and the idea of autonomy itself. The hazard climb with every second, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that intertwines unearthly horror with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to tap into raw dread, an malevolence that predates humanity, manipulating our weaknesses, and questioning a spirit that tests the soul when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra meant evoking something deeper than fear. She is unseeing until the spirit seizes her, and that transition is deeply unsettling because it is so raw.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that users from coast to coast can enjoy this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its release of trailer #1, which has received over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, taking the terror to horror fans worldwide.


Be sure to catch this unforgettable path of possession. Face *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to confront these evil-rooted truths about the psyche.


For sneak peeks, director cuts, and alerts from behind the lens, follow @YACMovie across entertainment pages and visit the movie portal.





Modern horror’s sea change: the 2025 season domestic schedule braids together myth-forward possession, microbudget gut-punches, together with series shake-ups

Ranging from last-stand terror steeped in legendary theology and extending to franchise returns paired with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is tracking to be horror’s most layered paired with strategic year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. the big studios set cornerstones with established lines, even as premium streamers prime the fall with new voices as well as ancient terrors. On another front, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is propelled by the afterglow from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Since Halloween is the prized date, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are methodical, which means 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are assertive. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

the Universal camp begins the calendar with a risk-forward move: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, inside today’s landscape. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. landing in mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. From director Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. launches the swan song from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re engages, and the memorable motifs return: nostalgic menace, trauma in the foreground, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, builds out the animatronic fear crew, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It opens in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

SVOD Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a forensic chill anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed 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 terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No bloated canon. No brand fatigue. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

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 bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Franchise Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, with Francis Lawrence directing, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Trends to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

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 play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The forthcoming 2026 chiller Year Ahead: brand plays, Originals, paired with A Crowded Calendar Built For screams

Dek The arriving genre year stacks early with a January wave, from there carries through midyear, and well into the holidays, combining legacy muscle, original angles, and smart counterprogramming. Distributors with platforms are betting on tight budgets, theater-first strategies, and social-fueled campaigns that shape these pictures into four-quadrant talking points.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The horror sector has grown into the steady swing in studio lineups, a vertical that can accelerate when it clicks and still hedge the risk when it fails to connect. After 2023 reminded executives that responsibly budgeted genre plays can own the discourse, the following year kept energy high with auteur-driven buzzy films and surprise hits. The momentum fed into 2025, where resurrections and prestige plays made clear there is appetite for a variety of tones, from sequel tracks to original features that play globally. The end result for 2026 is a roster that reads highly synchronized across companies, with strategic blocks, a mix of recognizable IP and fresh ideas, and a reinvigorated strategy on cinema windows that feed downstream value on premium rental and digital services.

Executives say the genre now operates like a versatile piece on the rollout map. The genre can kick off on open real estate, provide a simple premise for spots and reels, and exceed norms with patrons that come out on previews Thursday and continue through the next pass if the title connects. After a work stoppage lag, the 2026 layout signals certainty in that logic. The year opens with a crowded January schedule, then primes spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while carving room for a September to October window that stretches into All Hallows period and into post-Halloween. The arrangement also features the continuing integration of specialty arms and platforms that can nurture a platform play, grow buzz, and move wide at the sweet spot.

A further high-level trend is legacy care across connected story worlds and established properties. Distribution groups are not just releasing another follow-up. They are seeking to position threaded continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that signals a new tone or a casting choice that threads a latest entry to a vintage era. At the meanwhile, the filmmakers behind the most anticipated originals are favoring practical craft, practical gags and grounded locations. That combination offers 2026 a solid mix of assurance and surprise, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline titles that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward character-focused installment. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a nostalgia-forward strategy without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Watch for a push rooted in iconic art, character-first teases, and a tiered teaser plan timed to late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will emphasize. As a summer counter-slot, this one will pursue wide appeal through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format inviting quick turns to whatever drives pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three separate releases. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is crisp, somber, and easily pitched: a grieving man purchases an synthetic partner that evolves into a lethal partner. The date locates it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to echo strange in-person beats and micro spots that interlaces longing and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a title drop to become an PR pop closer to the early tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s pictures are framed as creative events, with a minimalist tease and a second beat that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, makeup-driven style can feel deluxe on a efficient spend. Position this as a gore-forward summer horror rush that maximizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio books two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, carrying a proven supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is selling as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both core fans and novices. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign pieces around setting detail, and monster design, elements that can accelerate format premiums and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror driven by rigorous craft and textual fidelity, this time set against lycan legends. The specialty arm has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. The Universal horror run move to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a cadence that enhances both first-week urgency and sign-up spikes in the later window. Prime Video balances licensed films with worldwide entries and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog discovery, using editorial spots, holiday hubs, and collection rows to keep attention on the horror cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival acquisitions, confirming horror entries toward the drop and turning into events launches with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a one-two of focused cinema runs and fast windowing that drives paid trials from buzz. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has indicated interest to invest in select projects with prestige directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly activity when the genre conversation intensifies.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 pipeline with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is simple: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, retooled for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a big-screen first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the fall weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, guiding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday frame to move out. That positioning has proved effective for auteur horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception merits. 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 as a pair, using boutique theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subs.

Balance of brands and originals

By count, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the series side. 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 pragmatic answer is to position each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is underscoring character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a emerging director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries provide the air. 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, puts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the assembly is familiar enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night turnout.

Recent-year comps illuminate the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that maintained windows did not preclude a day-date try from thriving when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind this slate hint at a continued preference for hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that leans on mood over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a self-aware reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster work and world-building, which match well with convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel must-have. Look for trailers that elevate pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in big rooms.

How the year maps out

January is jammed. 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 finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the palette of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a useful reference bridge slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s machine mate evolves into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: mood-led 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 difficult boss work to survive on a isolated island as the pecking order inverts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

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 from-today rework that returns the monster to fear, rooted in Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: 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 home-set haunting chiller that routes the horror through a youngster’s flickering subjective lens. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-fronted eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A send-up revival that skewers hot-button genre motifs and true crime fascinations. Rating: undetermined. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 breaks out, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further widens again, with a unlucky family snared by old terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-first horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: pending. Production: moving forward. 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 time-true diction and ancient menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three practical forces organize this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-sequenced in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming launches. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest meme-ready beats from test screenings, managed scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, creating valuable space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 value-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 use those gaps. 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sound field, 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.

A Promising 2026

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand gravity where needed, auteur intent 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.