Ancient Horror Returns within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding supernatural thriller, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

This terrifying mystic fright fest from narrative craftsman / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an primordial curse when unrelated individuals become proxies in a cursed ritual. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking portrayal of continuance and age-old darkness that will reshape fear-driven cinema this cool-weather season. Helmed by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and claustrophobic motion picture follows five teens who suddenly rise trapped in a isolated shelter under the malevolent command of Kyra, a female lead inhabited by a timeless sacred-era entity. Get ready to be gripped by a immersive event that merges intense horror with mystical narratives, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a well-established foundation in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is inverted when the presences no longer appear from beyond, but rather from deep inside. This embodies the darkest version of the cast. The result is a bone-chilling emotional conflict where the story becomes a perpetual fight between purity and corruption.


In a isolated landscape, five teens find themselves contained under the unholy effect and domination of a uncanny character. As the companions becomes incapable to break her command, severed and followed by unknowns unimaginable, they are driven to acknowledge their core terrors while the clock relentlessly edges forward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension amplifies and bonds fracture, pushing each character to question their existence and the concept of decision-making itself. The consequences climb with every fleeting time, delivering a cinematic nightmare that marries paranormal dread with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to explore basic terror, an threat older than civilization itself, emerging via our weaknesses, and navigating a will that dismantles free will when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was centered on something beneath mortal despair. She is blind until the entity awakens, and that metamorphosis is bone-chilling because it is so raw.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring subscribers around the globe can experience this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first preview, which has seen over 100,000 views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, exporting the fear to horror fans worldwide.


Do not miss this cinematic ride through nightmares. Enter *Young & Cursed* this launch day to explore these fearful discoveries about the mind.


For sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and news from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official movie site.





American horror’s pivotal crossroads: calendar year 2025 U.S. Slate melds old-world possession, indie terrors, alongside Franchise Rumbles

Beginning with survivor-centric dread steeped in scriptural legend through to IP renewals plus acutely observed indies, 2025 is emerging as the most stratified along with calculated campaign year since the mid-2010s.

Call it full, but it is also focused. major banners bookend the months via recognizable brands, while OTT services pack the fall with discovery plays as well as ancestral chills. On another front, the independent cohort is buoyed by the momentum of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, notably this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are targeted, as a result 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium genre swings back

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s slate leads off the quarter with an audacious swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a modern-day environment. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. arriving mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s slate drops the final chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re engages, and the tone that worked before is intact: vintage toned fear, trauma driven plotting, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time the stakes climb, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, builds out the animatronic fear crew, speaking to teens and older millennials. It bows in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Modest spend, serious shock

While the big screen favors titles you know, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a two hander body horror spiral including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable led by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is an astute call. No puffed out backstory. No IP hangover. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. 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, and Tribeca’s genre set plays 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: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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

What to Watch

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

Body horror swings back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Projection: Fall saturation and a winter joker

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 fright slate: entries, original films, in tandem with A loaded Calendar aimed at goosebumps

Dek The emerging horror calendar clusters from the jump with a January traffic jam, before it stretches through summer, and pushing into the December corridor, balancing brand equity, new voices, and calculated counter-scheduling. Studios and platforms are focusing on smart costs, theater-first strategies, and buzz-forward plans that elevate these releases into all-audience topics.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror filmmaking has become the dependable option in release strategies, a genre that can break out when it breaks through and still cushion the liability when it stumbles. After the 2023 year reassured buyers that low-to-mid budget horror vehicles can own the discourse, 2024 sustained momentum with high-profile filmmaker pieces and stealth successes. The head of steam rolled into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and critical darlings underscored there is space for varied styles, from returning installments to original features that play globally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a run that reads highly synchronized across studios, with planned clusters, a harmony of brand names and novel angles, and a renewed eye on theatrical windows that increase tail monetization on premium video on demand and OTT platforms.

Executives say the genre now acts as a fill-in ace on the schedule. The genre can launch on most weekends, create a sharp concept for trailers and short-form placements, and overperform with viewers that line up on previews Thursday and continue through the next pass if the entry satisfies. In the wake of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 plan indicates faith in that model. The slate gets underway with a weighty January window, then targets spring into early summer for balance, while saving space for a fall run that flows toward spooky season and afterwards. The layout also includes the stronger partnership of specialty arms and platforms that can develop over weeks, spark evangelism, and go nationwide at the right moment.

A companion trend is brand strategy across linked properties and veteran brands. Studios are not just greenlighting another chapter. They are shaping as continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a re-angled tone or a lead change that ties a new entry to a first wave. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are doubling down on on-set craft, physical gags and place-driven backdrops. That interplay yields 2026 a smart balance of brand comfort and discovery, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

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

Paramount establishes early momentum with two spotlight moves that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the front, positioning the film as both a baton pass and a return-to-roots character-centered film. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture announces a heritage-honoring framework without going over the last two entries’ family thread. Count on a promo wave anchored in brand visuals, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm landing toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off 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 as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will foreground. As a counterweight in summer, this one will build four-quadrant chatter through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick shifts to whatever shapes horror talk that spring.

Universal has three separate plays. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is clean, soulful, and commercial: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that becomes a dangerous lover. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s team likely to revisit off-kilter promo beats and snackable content that melds companionship and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules 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 posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a proper title to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. The filmmaker’s films are presented as event films, with a hinting teaser and a second wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date creates space for Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has made clear that a blood-soaked, in-camera leaning treatment can feel cinematic on a disciplined budget. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror shock that leans into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio rolls out two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, holding a proven supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is positioning as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both core fans and general audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign pieces around narrative world, and creature builds, elements that can fuel premium booking interest and convention buzz.

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 advances Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by obsessive craft and dialect, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus Features has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is favorable.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre slate feed copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ordering that enhances both first-week urgency and trial spikes in the later window. Prime Video pairs acquired titles with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog engagement, using prominent placements, October hubs, and curated rows to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival deals, locking in horror entries closer to launch and framing as events premieres with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a two-step of tailored theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to acquire select projects with recognized filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for sustained usage when the genre conversation swells.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is curating a 2026 pipeline with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is direct: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, refined for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a theatrical-first 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 play the auteur card with Werwulf, marshalling the project through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday frame to increase reach. That positioning has proved effective for auteur horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception supports. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using limited runs to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchise entries versus originals

By skew, 2026 favors the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use brand equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand wear. The preferred tactic is to frame each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is centering character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a continental coloration from a ascendant talent. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and talent-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the deal build is recognizable enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

The last three-year set make sense of the approach. In 2023, a cinema-first model that respected streaming windows did not preclude a simultaneous release test from performing when the brand was powerful. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror exceeded expectations in premium screens. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reframe POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, provides the means for marketing to relate entries through character arcs and themes and to continue assets in field without extended gaps.

Technique and craft currents

The craft rooms behind this slate hint at a continued lean toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that highlights creep and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft journalism and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta recalibration that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel primary. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the variety of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Q1 into Q2 set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Shoulder season into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a opaque tease strategy and limited disclosures that center concept over reveals.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card spend.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects 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 heartbroken man’s digital partner escalates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

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 with U.S. theatrical locked. 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. Source Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss claw to survive on a isolated island as the hierarchy shifts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to fear, driven by Cronin’s material craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting tale that filters its scares through a little one’s volatile point of view. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

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 genre lampoon that riffs on hot-button genre motifs and true-crime crazes. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites detonates, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further widens again, with a different family bound to lingering terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survivalist horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: to be announced. Production: moving forward. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and elemental menace. Rating: TBD. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three execution-level forces structure this lineup. First, production that paused or recalendared in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify repeatable beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, making room for genre entries that can control a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is franchise muscle where it helps, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the chills sell the seats.