Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases antediluvian malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 across major platforms

A chilling otherworldly suspense story from cinematographer / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an prehistoric entity when newcomers become victims in a cursed game. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching tale of living through and old world terror that will reshape genre cinema this season. Visualized by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and emotionally thick cinema piece follows five lost souls who emerge sealed in a off-grid lodge under the hostile rule of Kyra, a young woman inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old ancient fiend. Brace yourself to be ensnared by a big screen event that melds primitive horror with timeless legends, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a well-established element in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is inverted when the demons no longer arise from beyond, but rather inside them. This embodies the shadowy dimension of the group. The result is a edge-of-seat cognitive warzone where the narrative becomes a constant confrontation between purity and corruption.


In a unforgiving woodland, five adults find themselves cornered under the possessive influence and control of a unidentified apparition. As the cast becomes incapacitated to resist her influence, stranded and hunted by unknowns impossible to understand, they are confronted to deal with their raw vulnerabilities while the deathwatch ruthlessly strikes toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion builds and alliances collapse, requiring each soul to doubt their personhood and the idea of liberty itself. The tension amplify with every fleeting time, delivering a terror ride that marries otherworldly panic with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to tap into basic terror, an threat rooted in antiquity, channeling itself through emotional vulnerability, and navigating a entity that peels away humanity when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant evoking something darker than pain. She is in denial until the entity awakens, and that shift is emotionally raw because it is so raw.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing streamers around the globe can witness this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its initial teaser, which has collected over strong viewer count.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, delivering the story to horror fans worldwide.


Mark your calendar for this life-altering exploration of dread. Watch *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to acknowledge these fearful discoveries about inner darkness.


For director insights, set experiences, and reveals straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across platforms and visit the official movie site.





Current horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 for genre fans domestic schedule integrates primeval-possession lore, festival-born jolts, and series shake-ups

Kicking off with survival horror suffused with near-Eastern lore and extending to legacy revivals together with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 stands to become the most textured together with blueprinted year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. the big studios plant stakes across the year by way of signature titles, concurrently premium streamers pack the fall with debut heat in concert with old-world menace. On another front, festival-forward creators is buoyed by the tailwinds of a banner 2024 fest year. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, though in this cycle, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are precise, and 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s pipeline opens the year with a headline swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Under director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. arriving mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Steered by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. Pictures delivers the closing chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

After that, The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retrograde shiver, trauma in the foreground, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. Here the stakes rise, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, thickens the animatronic pantheon, courting teens and the thirty something base. It lands in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

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

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a close quarters body horror study fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and helmed 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.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 reads as sharp positioning. No overstuffed canon. No sequel clutter. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops 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.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Key Trends

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror comes roaring back
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Big screen is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The 2026 genre Year Ahead: next chapters, fresh concepts, together with A jammed Calendar geared toward jolts

Dek The upcoming scare cycle loads in short order with a January bottleneck, after that stretches through peak season, and far into the holidays, weaving IP strength, creative pitches, and savvy release strategy. Distributors with platforms are prioritizing mid-range economics, cinema-first plans, and shareable marketing that elevate these releases into all-audience topics.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This space has solidified as the predictable release in studio calendars, a corner that can scale when it lands and still hedge the exposure when it misses. After 2023 reconfirmed for greenlighters that disciplined-budget genre plays can steer the discourse, 2024 held pace with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The energy extended into 2025, where reboots and awards-minded projects proved there is a lane for different modes, from continued chapters to original features that perform internationally. The net effect for 2026 is a programming that reads highly synchronized across distributors, with strategic blocks, a blend of marquee IP and first-time concepts, and a revived commitment on theatrical windows that increase tail monetization on PVOD and streaming.

Studio leaders note the space now slots in as a flex slot on the slate. Horror can bow on many corridors, yield a tight logline for marketing and UGC-friendly snippets, and lead with fans that come out on early shows and keep coming through the sophomore frame if the release works. Coming out of a production delay era, the 2026 pattern signals comfort in that engine. The slate kicks off with a crowded January band, then primes spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while carving room for a late-year stretch that extends to the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The layout also reflects the expanded integration of specialized labels and streaming partners that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and scale up at the optimal moment.

An added macro current is series management across linked properties and storied titles. Studio teams are not just releasing another chapter. They are looking to package threaded continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a title design that indicates a refreshed voice or a cast configuration that reconnects a upcoming film to a first wave. At the simultaneously, the auteurs behind the marquee originals are returning to in-camera technique, on-set effects and distinct locales. That convergence produces the 2026 slate a robust balance of known notes and surprise, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount establishes early momentum with two prominent releases 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 lead, framing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a return-to-roots character-centered film. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the narrative stance suggests a heritage-honoring strategy without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Count on a promo wave anchored in legacy iconography, early character teases, and a two-beat trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will play up. As a counterweight in summer, this one will seek broad awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format inviting quick switches to whatever defines the conversation that spring.

Universal has three discrete lanes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tidy, grief-rooted, and concept-forward: a grieving man installs an intelligent companion that becomes a fatal companion. The date sets it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to revisit strange in-person beats and short-form creative that threads companionship and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a branding reveal to become an attention spike closer to the first look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are sold as event films, with a concept-forward tease and a subsequent trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The pre-Halloween slot allows Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has made clear that a visceral, on-set effects led strategy can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Look for a blood-and-grime summer horror shot that centers offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, extending a trusty supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is calling a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both core fans and curious audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign pieces around world-building, and monster craft, elements that can amplify deluxe auditorium demand and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by immersive craft and language, this time set against lycan legends. The distributor has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is enthusiastic.

Digital platform strategies

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s slate flow to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ordering that optimizes both week-one demand and sign-up spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video interleaves licensed films with cross-border buys and limited cinema engagements when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, horror hubs, and curated strips to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix remains opportunistic about original films and festival pickups, finalizing horror entries near their drops and coalescing around go-lives with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a two-step of selective theatrical runs and short jumps to platform that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has indicated interest to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 corridor with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clear: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, retooled for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a theatrical-first plan for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the autumn Get More Info weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas corridor to increase reach. That positioning has delivered for director-led genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception allows. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using mini theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchise entries versus originals

By weight, 2026 favors the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage fan equity. The caveat, as ever, is brand erosion. The pragmatic answer is to pitch each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is emphasizing character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a emerging director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and director-driven titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed 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 playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the package is anchored enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night crowds.

Rolling three-year comps clarify the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept streaming intact did not preclude a day-and-date experiment from performing when the brand was sticky. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror over-performed in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they shift POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, permits marketing to link the films through character web and themes and to continue assets in field without extended gaps.

Craft and creative trends

The production chatter behind this slate foreshadow a continued lean toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that leans on atmosphere and fear rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for red-band excess, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta recalibration that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster work and world-building, which fit with con floor moments and curated leaks. Insidious tends imp source to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that play in premium auditoriums.

Month-by-month map

January is full. 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 somber counterpoint amid heavier IP. 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 formidable, but the range of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late Q1 and spring prime the summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now hosts 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. 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 shuffled through big rooms.

August into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited asset reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus 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 clicks critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production pushes forward. Logline: navigate here Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s AI companion turns into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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

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: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: mood-led adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss work to survive on a desolate island as the power balance upends and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to menace, based on Cronin’s practical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting piece that frames the panic through a kid’s volatile internal vantage. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A satirical comeback that riffs on of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fascinations. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 flares, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further extends again, with a young family snared by residual nightmares. Rating: forthcoming. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-core horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBA. Production: proceeding. 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 bone-deep menace. Rating: TBA. 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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that paused or rearranged in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and pared-down timelines. 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming drops. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can capture a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will share space across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound field, 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.

A Promising 2026

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand equity where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.