Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streamers

This hair-raising unearthly terror film from storyteller / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an primeval nightmare when passersby become conduits in a hellish contest. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching tale of survival and forgotten curse that will reshape the fear genre this October. Helmed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and claustrophobic cinema piece follows five individuals who find themselves confined in a cut-off cabin under the aggressive sway of Kyra, a female lead claimed by a millennia-old ancient fiend. Get ready to be absorbed by a immersive display that fuses visceral dread with spiritual backstory, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a mainstay motif in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is flipped when the presences no longer originate from external sources, but rather inside their minds. This embodies the deepest version of the protagonists. The result is a emotionally raw spiritual tug-of-war where the emotions becomes a constant struggle between moral forces.


In a unforgiving wild, five friends find themselves imprisoned under the fiendish force and infestation of a uncanny figure. As the youths becomes paralyzed to oppose her will, detached and chased by terrors beyond reason, they are pushed to endure their raw vulnerabilities while the timeline without pause counts down toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety surges and ties dissolve, prompting each character to question their true nature and the notion of personal agency itself. The cost climb with every tick, delivering a fear-soaked story that blends unearthly horror with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to explore raw dread, an evil from ancient eras, channeling itself through psychological breaks, and challenging a force that tests the soul when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra called for internalizing something more primal than sorrow. She is unaware until the entity awakens, and that shift is shocking because it is so visceral.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for worldwide release beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering watchers around the globe can get immersed in this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its release of trailer #1, which has received over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, presenting the nightmare to fans of fear everywhere.


Make sure to see this bone-rattling descent into darkness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to witness these spiritual awakenings about existence.


For director insights, set experiences, and reveals straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit the film’s website.





Horror’s watershed moment: 2025 for genre fans domestic schedule integrates old-world possession, underground frights, and franchise surges

Beginning with survivor-centric dread drawn from near-Eastern lore and stretching into installment follow-ups together with focused festival visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated combined with intentionally scheduled year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors bookend the months using marquee IP, at the same time digital services prime the fall with discovery plays and ancestral chills. On the independent axis, independent banners is propelled by the kinetic energy of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and now, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are surgical, and 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s schedule lights the fuse with an audacious swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a modern-day environment. Under director Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Slated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

At summer’s close, Warner’s pipeline unveils the final movement of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: vintage toned fear, trauma in the foreground, with ghostly inner logic. This pass pushes higher, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The continuation widens the legend, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It drops in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a tight space body horror vignette anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held 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 menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces 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.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No puffed out backstory. No IP hangover. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. 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, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Brands: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Key Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Projection: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

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 like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

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 plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The next fright cycle: returning titles, universe starters, as well as A brimming Calendar aimed at goosebumps

Dek The incoming genre year stacks early with a January crush, and then runs through the summer months, and continuing into the holiday frame, balancing brand equity, original angles, and savvy counterweight. Studio marketers and platforms are committing to cost discipline, theatrical leads, and influencer-ready assets that transform horror entries into culture-wide discussion.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This space has emerged as the surest release in annual schedules, a lane that can grow when it performs and still cushion the drawdown when it falls short. After the 2023 year proved to greenlighters that cost-conscious horror vehicles can command pop culture, the following year continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam fed into the 2025 frame, where returns and festival-grade titles demonstrated there is demand for varied styles, from brand follow-ups to original features that resonate abroad. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a lineup that seems notably aligned across the market, with clear date clusters, a balance of marquee IP and fresh ideas, and a recommitted emphasis on box-office windows that power the aftermarket on premium on-demand and digital services.

Marketers add the horror lane now functions as a schedule utility on the release plan. Horror can premiere on many corridors, create a tight logline for trailers and vertical videos, and punch above weight with demo groups that come out on preview nights and stay strong through the week two if the offering hits. Coming out of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 mapping indicates certainty in that playbook. The year commences with a loaded January lineup, then turns to spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while making space for a autumn push that pushes into Halloween and into the next week. The layout also reflects the increasing integration of specialty distributors and digital platforms that can develop over weeks, generate chatter, and roll out at the right moment.

A parallel macro theme is IP cultivation across interlocking continuities and legacy franchises. Studios are not just releasing another continuation. They are trying to present continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a title design that telegraphs a new tone or a casting move that binds a upcoming film to a first wave. At the parallel to that, the filmmakers behind the marquee originals are championing physical effects work, practical gags and site-specific worlds. That interplay offers the 2026 slate a lively combination of trust and shock, which is how the genre sells abroad.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile moves that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the lead, positioning the film as both a relay and a foundation-forward character-first story. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance points to a fan-service aware campaign without going over the last two entries’ sibling arc. Expect a marketing push fueled by recognizable motifs, character previews, and a rollout cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will emphasize. As a summer counter-slot, this one will drive wide buzz through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick turns to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is efficient, soulful, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an algorithmic mate that becomes a murderous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s team likely to mirror strange in-person beats and snackable content that interlaces affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a public title to become an earned moment closer to the initial promo. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s work are sold as auteur events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-October frame gives Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a tactile, makeup-driven approach can feel elevated on a disciplined budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror blast that leans hard into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, sustaining a bankable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is billing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both players and casuals. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign pieces around narrative world, and monster craft, elements that can increase large-format demand 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 advances Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in immersive craft and historical speech, this time set against lycan legends. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is favorable.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Windowing plans in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that expands both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up spikes in the downstream. Prime Video pairs licensed content with global originals and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in back-catalog play, using seasonal hubs, horror hubs, and editorial rows to lengthen the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival additions, slotting horror entries closer to launch and staging as events debuts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a one-two of targeted cinema placements and speedy platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has indicated interest to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 slate with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is direct: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, updated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a theatrical-first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late-season weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the fall click to read more circuit if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to widen. That positioning has worked well for auteur horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using mini theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By weight, the 2026 slate tips toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to market each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is foregrounding core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is promising a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries supply the oxygen. 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, places Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the configuration is known enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the approach. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept clean windows did not deter a day-date move from paying off when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror punched above its weight in premium formats. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and increase ambition. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to leave creative active without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate hint at a continued emphasis on material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that leans on creep and texture rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft features before rolling out a initial teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta reframe that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will live or die on monster realization and design, which favor convention floor stunts and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that highlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

January is stacked. 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 moody palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month winds down 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 stiff, but the range of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth carries.

February through May set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Back half into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a transitional slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a slow-reveal plan and limited teasers that put concept first.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s artificial companion escalates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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 run into a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her abrasive boss scramble to survive on a cut-off island as the control dynamic inverts and horror mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to horror, grounded in Cronin’s material craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting premise that manipulates the horror of a child’s tricky point of view. Rating: rating pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-supported and headline-actor led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that teases current genre trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming slated for 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 erupts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new family entangled with old terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: pending. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: forthcoming. Production: active. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 historical diction and elemental dread. Rating: TBA. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why this year, why now

Three pragmatic forces structure this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or rearranged in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured 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 landings. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on clippable moments from test screenings, select scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Calendar math also matters. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will line up across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-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 sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, 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 build month to month, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, 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 detail, sonics, 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand heft where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, 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, cut sharp trailers, protect the mystery, and let the chills sell the seats.