Ancient Darkness awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding feature, bowing Oct 2025 on leading streamers

One terrifying ghostly fear-driven tale from literary architect / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an timeless horror when foreigners become conduits in a cursed conflict. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving story of perseverance and mythic evil that will reimagine fear-driven cinema this scare season. Crafted by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and moody tale follows five individuals who find themselves stuck in a secluded shack under the malevolent influence of Kyra, a tormented girl consumed by a time-worn sacred-era entity. Prepare to be captivated by a audio-visual venture that merges soul-chilling terror with legendary tales, coming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a recurring tradition in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is challenged when the malevolences no longer come outside their bodies, but rather through their own souls. This suggests the grimmest side of all involved. The result is a gripping internal warfare where the plotline becomes a relentless fight between heaven and hell.


In a abandoned forest, five characters find themselves sealed under the dark dominion and haunting of a obscure person. As the victims becomes defenseless to withstand her dominion, detached and hunted by beings ungraspable, they are pushed to wrestle with their greatest panics while the final hour without pity pushes forward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread deepens and alliances implode, prompting each soul to reflect on their identity and the foundation of free will itself. The threat escalate with every short lapse, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that blends mystical fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to extract ancestral fear, an darkness beyond time, influencing inner turmoil, and exposing a darkness that dismantles free will when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was about accessing something past sanity. She is insensitive until the haunting manifests, and that change is shocking because it is so emotional.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring watchers anywhere can be part of this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first trailer, which has seen over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, delivering the story to horror fans worldwide.


Make sure to see this unforgettable exploration of dread. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this launch day to uncover these terrifying truths about the human condition.


For behind-the-scenes access, set experiences, and social posts from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Facebook and TikTok and visit the film’s website.





Modern horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 across markets stateside slate Mixes primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, set against brand-name tremors

Kicking off with pressure-cooker survival tales grounded in biblical myth and onward to series comebacks alongside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is shaping up as the most dimensioned plus carefully orchestrated year since the mid-2010s.

Call it full, but it is also focused. the big studios stabilize the year via recognizable brands, while OTT services prime the fall with unboxed visions in concert with ancestral chills. In parallel, the art-house flank is drafting behind the uplift of 2024’s record festival wave. Since Halloween is the prized date, the other windows are mapped with care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, however this time, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are precise, hence 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Premium genre swings back

The top end is active. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s slate lights the fuse with a statement play: a reimagined Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Under director Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Booked into mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Directed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer eases, Warner’s slate launches the swan song within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: vintage toned fear, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. Here the stakes rise, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It books December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Originals: No Budget, No Problem

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a room scale body horror descent pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story fronted 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 piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within 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 reads as sharp positioning. No overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Trend Lines

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror retakes ground
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. 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
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

What’s Next: Autumn density and winter pivot

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 must claw for air. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The next spook release year: entries, non-franchise titles, paired with A packed Calendar calibrated for chills

Dek: The incoming genre cycle packs from the jump with a January wave, then unfolds through the summer months, and carrying into the holiday stretch, weaving franchise firepower, untold stories, and well-timed counterplay. Studios with streamers are embracing lean spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that pivot these releases into cross-demo moments.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror has turned into the steady swing in release plans, a genre that can scale when it hits and still mitigate the drag when it does not. After 2023 signaled to studio brass that lean-budget chillers can command audience talk, the following year extended the rally with director-led heat and stealth successes. The momentum fed into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and festival-grade titles highlighted there is a lane for many shades, from sequel tracks to non-IP projects that resonate abroad. The net effect for 2026 is a lineup that presents tight coordination across the industry, with obvious clusters, a pairing of legacy names and first-time concepts, and a revived eye on box-office windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital and home streaming.

Buyers contend the genre now acts as a versatile piece on the schedule. Horror can launch on many corridors, generate a quick sell for promo reels and TikTok spots, and outpace with audiences that turn out on Thursday previews and continue through the follow-up frame if the movie satisfies. Exiting a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 cadence shows certainty in that dynamic. The slate starts with a heavy January schedule, then taps spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while leaving room for a late-year stretch that pushes into the Halloween frame and past Halloween. The gridline also illustrates the greater integration of specialized labels and subscription services that can stage a platform run, generate chatter, and grow at the strategic time.

A reinforcing pattern is brand strategy across unified worlds and long-running brands. The studios are not just releasing another continuation. They are working to present threaded continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a typeface approach that indicates a new tone or a talent selection that bridges a latest entry to a early run. At the very same time, the helmers behind the high-profile originals are doubling down on material texture, makeup and prosthetics and grounded locations. That interplay delivers the 2026 slate a lively combination of known notes and invention, which is how the films export.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount defines the early cadence with two high-profile plays that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the spine, presenting it as both a lineage transfer and a return-to-roots character-centered film. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the narrative stance announces a heritage-honoring campaign without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Expect a marketing push rooted in classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a staggered trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will emphasize. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will go after general-audience talk through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick reframes to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is elegant, grief-rooted, and concept-forward: a grieving man brings home an algorithmic mate that turns into a killer companion. The date nudges it to the front of a front-loaded month, with the marketing arm likely to iterate on uncanny live moments and brief clips that blurs affection and dread.

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 listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are set up as filmmaker events, with a teaser that holds back and a follow-up trailer set that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor gives the studio room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on 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 heads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has consistently shown that a gnarly, practical-effects forward treatment can feel big on a efficient spend. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror jolt that spotlights foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

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

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is positioning as a reimagined restart 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 directive to serve both longtime followers and general audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build assets around universe detail, and creature design, elements that can accelerate premium booking interest and fan-forward engagement.

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 follows Eggers’ run of period horror centered on textural authenticity and language, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is favorable.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Windowing plans in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate feed copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a ordering that elevates both initial urgency and subscription bumps in the later window. Prime Video interleaves licensed films with worldwide buys and short theatrical plays when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, seasonal hubs, and staff picks to extend momentum on the 2026 genre total. Netflix plays opportunist about own-slate titles and festival pickups, finalizing horror entries tight to release and making event-like launches with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a laddered of precision theatrical plays and quick platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a per-project basis. The platform has signaled readiness to invest in select projects with established auteurs or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track 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 pitch is tight: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, upgraded for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late stretch.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the December frame to increase reach. That positioning has paid off for arthouse horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception encourages. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using targeted theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Balance of brands and originals

By proportion, 2026 bends toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit legacy awareness. The risk, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to frame each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a European tilt from a rising filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the cast-creatives package is anchored enough to spark pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Three-year comps help explain the method. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that honored streaming windows did not block a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was sticky. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror exceeded expectations in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they shift POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds 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 back-to-back, lets marketing to link the films through relationships and themes and to keep assets alive without pause points.

Craft and creative trends

The filmmaking conversations behind this year’s genre foreshadow a continued bias toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that spotlights texture and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in trade spotlights and artisan spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta inflection that centers its original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster realization and design, which work nicely for expo activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that spotlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that shine in top rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. 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 atmospheric change-up amid bigger brand plays. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the spread of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

February through May seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can connect 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 rolled through premiums.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited advance reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s synthetic partner escalates into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. click to read more 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 struggle to survive on a isolated island as the power balance flips and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to menace, built on Cronin’s on-set craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting premise that mediates the fear via a youth’s flickering point of view. Rating: TBD. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-financed and celebrity-led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that satirizes in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBD. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further opens again, with a another family anchored to past horrors. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A clean reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on pure survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: forthcoming. Production: proceeding. 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 period-specific language and ancient menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three practical forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming launches. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify bite-size scare clips from test screenings, metered scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundscape, and imagery 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is IP strength where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the chills sell the seats.