Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a chilling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streamers

A hair-raising paranormal terror film from narrative craftsman / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an forgotten malevolence when passersby become tools in a supernatural ceremony. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish story of perseverance and primeval wickedness that will reshape fear-driven cinema this Halloween season. Crafted by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and gothic story follows five unacquainted souls who emerge locked in a cut-off shack under the dark rule of Kyra, a troubled woman possessed by a prehistoric ancient fiend. Anticipate to be enthralled by a immersive journey that fuses gut-punch terror with ancestral stories, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a mainstay foundation in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is redefined when the spirits no longer originate outside the characters, but rather deep within. This represents the deepest aspect of all involved. The result is a emotionally raw emotional conflict where the events becomes a unforgiving conflict between righteousness and malevolence.


In a barren terrain, five figures find themselves contained under the dark force and infestation of a haunted apparition. As the victims becomes incapacitated to withstand her will, detached and tormented by powers beyond comprehension, they are pushed to wrestle with their soulful dreads while the seconds unceasingly counts down toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread mounts and relationships implode, driving each cast member to reflect on their existence and the nature of decision-making itself. The cost mount with every minute, delivering a horror experience that integrates paranormal dread with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to channel primal fear, an spirit beyond time, manipulating mental cracks, and confronting a spirit that strips down our being when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra was centered on something beneath mortal despair. She is unaware until the entity awakens, and that transformation is bone-chilling because it is so personal.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that watchers globally can get immersed in this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its original promo, which has been viewed over massive response.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, making the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Witness this soul-jarring trip into the unknown. Explore *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to see these ghostly lessons about the mind.


For featurettes, making-of footage, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursed across entertainment pages and visit the official website.





Modern horror’s tipping point: calendar year 2025 U.S. rollouts braids together ancient-possession motifs, art-house nightmares, paired with franchise surges

From last-stand terror rooted in scriptural legend and onward to installment follow-ups in concert with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is emerging as the most complex plus precision-timed year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio powerhouses plant stakes across the year through proven series, in tandem digital services saturate the fall with emerging auteurs as well as legend-coded dread. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is carried on the echoes from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and now, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: High-craft horror returns

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal camp sets the tone with a risk-forward move: a refreshed Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a crisp modern milieu. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. arriving 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 reworked as a minimalist shock machine. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside 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. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer wanes, the Warner Bros. banner sets loose the finale from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. While the template is known, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re engages, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, and eerie supernatural logic. The stakes escalate here, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The follow up digs further into canon, broadens the animatronic terror cast, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It arrives in December, pinning the winter close.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror chamber piece pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed 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 the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No bloated canon. No IP hangover. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, under Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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

What to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror reemerges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Forecast: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The approaching chiller release year: follow-ups, fresh concepts, alongside A busy Calendar aimed at screams

Dek: The new genre year crowds up front with a January logjam, then flows through June and July, and far into the festive period, blending IP strength, new concepts, and strategic counterweight. Studios with streamers are leaning into efficient budgets, theater-first strategies, and shareable marketing that position these pictures into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s status entering 2026

Horror has grown into the predictable lever in distribution calendars, a segment that can accelerate when it clicks and still protect the drawdown when it stumbles. After 2023 showed greenlighters that responsibly budgeted entries can drive the national conversation, 2024 kept energy high with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The tailwind carried into 2025, where resurrections and prestige plays underscored there is room for diverse approaches, from franchise continuations to original one-offs that play globally. The result for 2026 is a calendar that is strikingly coherent across companies, with planned clusters, a equilibrium of familiar brands and first-time concepts, and a revived focus on big-screen windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital and subscription services.

Distribution heads claim the category now functions as a flex slot on the release plan. The genre can premiere on virtually any date, furnish a tight logline for teasers and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with ticket buyers that come out on opening previews and return through the second weekend if the feature fires. Post a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 setup underscores comfort in that logic. The slate begins with a crowded January block, then leans on spring and early summer for contrast, while leaving room for a late-year stretch that runs into Halloween and into the next week. The program also highlights the greater integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can nurture a platform play, create conversation, and broaden at the right moment.

A further high-level trend is IP stewardship across shared universes and storied titles. Major shops are not just turning out another continuation. They are shaping as story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a recalibrated tone or a talent selection that ties a upcoming film to a first wave. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the high-profile originals are leaning into in-camera technique, practical effects and distinct locales. That mix offers 2026 a healthy mix of home base and invention, which is what works overseas.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two marquee bets that span tone from serious to silly. 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 lineage transfer and a back-to-basics character-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture suggests a legacy-leaning mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with recognizable motifs, intro reveals, and a tiered teaser plan targeting 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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will drive general-audience talk through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever leads the discourse that spring.

Universal has three distinct strategies. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is clean, tragic, and high-concept: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that evolves into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to revisit odd public stunts and bite-size content that interlaces love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a proper title to become an marketing beat closer to the teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele projects are positioned as event films, with a teaser that holds back and a second trailer wave that define feel without revealing the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor affords Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, practical-first strategy can feel big on a controlled budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror hit that centers overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio deploys two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, keeping a steady supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is presenting as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both fans and newcomers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build assets around world-building, and creature work, elements that can lift premium booking interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror centered on careful craft and linguistic texture, this time focused on werewolf legend. The company has already locked the day for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is supportive.

Where the platforms fit in

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ladder that elevates both first-week urgency and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video will mix outside acquisitions with worldwide entries and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and staff picks to prolong the run on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival pickups, locking in horror entries toward the drop and staging as events debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a one-two of targeted theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that drives paid trials from buzz. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown appetite to board select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 lane with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is no-nonsense: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, modernized for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday frame to broaden. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-driven genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception encourages. Expect 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 in parallel, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchise entries versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate skews toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The challenge, as ever, is staleness. The pragmatic answer is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is centering relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French sensibility from a new voice. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the bundle is familiar enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and advance-audience nights.

Rolling three-year comps announce the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that respected streaming windows did not foreclose a same-day experiment from delivering when the brand was potent. In 2024, auteur craft horror hit big in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they rotate perspective and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances 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 lensed sequentially, gives leeway to marketing to connect the chapters through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets in-market without pause points.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind the upcoming entries telegraph a continued bias toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that emphasizes mood and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-true language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for red-band excess, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature and environment design, which favor fan conventions and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel necessary. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that shine in top rooms.

How the year maps out

January is crowded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid larger brand plays. The month ends 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 makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Late Q1 and spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 have a peek here is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a early fall window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited previews that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card burn.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s virtual companion unfolds into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: gothic-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 prickly boss push to survive on a uninhabited island as the control dynamic swivels and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to horror, driven by Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting chiller that manipulates the terror of a child’s tricky senses. Rating: to be announced. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-built and A-list fronted ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that riffs on in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fascinations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 spreads, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new clan anchored to past horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survivalist horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: forthcoming. Production: underway. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 primal menace. Rating: not yet rated. 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: date variable, fall window probable.

Why this year, why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces inform this lineup. First, production that stalled or recalendared in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming drops. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, 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 surprise-hit pursuit 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 leverage those opportunities. 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sound, and visual design 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

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand equity where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shudders sell the seats.