Antediluvian Dread surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling thriller, premiering October 2025 across global platforms

A spine-tingling ghostly suspense story from narrative craftsman / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an ancient fear when passersby become pawns in a hellish maze. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping narrative of resistance and old world terror that will reconstruct the fear genre this season. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and claustrophobic story follows five unacquainted souls who arise stranded in a hidden hideaway under the menacing dominion of Kyra, a central character consumed by a ancient Old Testament spirit. Prepare to be absorbed by a visual venture that unites visceral dread with legendary tales, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a iconic trope in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is challenged when the fiends no longer develop externally, but rather from their psyche. This represents the most primal layer of each of them. The result is a intense moral showdown where the events becomes a relentless confrontation between righteousness and malevolence.


In a haunting terrain, five youths find themselves contained under the ominous control and infestation of a unknown figure. As the companions becomes defenseless to combat her dominion, stranded and pursued by powers unnamable, they are compelled to battle their inner horrors while the final hour mercilessly counts down toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion surges and links erode, driving each participant to reflect on their essence and the concept of independent thought itself. The pressure magnify with every passing moment, delivering a nightmarish journey that fuses otherworldly panic with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to uncover instinctual horror, an malevolence from prehistory, emerging via emotional vulnerability, and dealing with a evil that threatens selfhood when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra asked for exploring something outside normal anguish. She is uninformed until the haunting manifests, and that metamorphosis is soul-crushing because it is so personal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering horror lovers from coast to coast can witness this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first preview, which has racked up over a viral response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, bringing the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Avoid skipping this unforgettable descent into darkness. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to acknowledge these haunting secrets about the soul.


For film updates, making-of footage, and news straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across fan hubs and visit the movie portal.





U.S. horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 in focus American release plan Mixes biblical-possession ideas, microbudget gut-punches, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from survivor-centric dread infused with near-Eastern lore all the way to legacy revivals plus sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 looks like the most stratified plus deliberate year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. the big studios are anchoring the year with franchise anchors, even as subscription platforms front-load the fall with debut heat alongside scriptural shivers. In parallel, independent banners is fueled by the momentum of a peak 2024 circuit. Since Halloween is the prized date, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are methodical, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: The Return of Prestige Fear

The majors are assertive. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s distribution arm opens the year with a big gambit: a contemporary Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Directed by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. dated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

At summer’s close, the Warner Bros. banner delivers the closing chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the tone that worked before is intact: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The next entry deepens the tale, builds out the animatronic fear crew, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It bows in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatrical skews franchise first, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale starring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Penned and steered 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 threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a smart play. No bloated canon. No canon weight. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are more runway than museum.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Long Running Lines: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

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

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror ascends again
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The filler era wanes for platform horror. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

The Road Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The oncoming Horror calendar year ahead: next chapters, standalone ideas, as well as A loaded Calendar tailored for screams

Dek The arriving genre year stacks early with a January logjam, then carries through the warm months, and well into the December corridor, mixing franchise firepower, fresh ideas, and well-timed alternatives. Studios with streamers are committing to responsible budgets, theatrical leads, and short-form initiatives that frame these films into national conversation.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The field has established itself as the most reliable option in studio slates, a corner that can break out when it catches and still mitigate the drag when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year reassured executives that mid-range scare machines can steer mainstream conversation, 2024 carried the beat with signature-voice projects and unexpected risers. The momentum moved into 2025, where revivals and prestige plays highlighted there is an opening for diverse approaches, from continued chapters to non-IP projects that resonate abroad. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a roster that appears tightly organized across the industry, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of familiar brands and new pitches, and a re-energized emphasis on exhibition windows that increase tail monetization on paid VOD and home streaming.

Schedulers say the space now operates like a schedule utility on the grid. Horror can kick off on nearly any frame, furnish a sharp concept for spots and vertical videos, and overperform with demo groups that turn out on Thursday previews and hold through the follow-up frame if the feature lands. Exiting a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 layout telegraphs faith in that logic. The calendar kicks off with a front-loaded January window, then leans on spring and early summer for contrast, while leaving room for a fall cadence that carries into late October and afterwards. The arrangement also spotlights the greater integration of arthouse labels and platforms that can grow from platform, stoke social talk, and expand at the proper time.

A companion trend is IP stewardship across shared IP webs and long-running brands. Distribution groups are not just greenlighting another next film. They are aiming to frame brand continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a graphic identity that conveys a re-angled tone or a casting pivot that anchors a incoming chapter to a classic era. At the very same time, the creative teams behind the high-profile originals are celebrating tactile craft, in-camera effects and place-driven backdrops. That mix delivers 2026 a robust balance of comfort and surprise, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount defines the early cadence with two front-of-slate pushes that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the heart, framing it as both a lineage transfer and a classic-mode character-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the creative posture suggests a roots-evoking strategy without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Watch for a push fueled by heritage visuals, first images of characters, and a trailer cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will double down on. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will hunt wide appeal through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format allowing quick updates to whatever shapes pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three distinct strategies. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is simple, tragic, and logline-clear: a grieving man activates an synthetic partner that becomes a killer companion. The date positions it at the front of a packed window, with the marketing arm likely to revisit uncanny-valley stunts and short-form creative that interlaces attachment and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under development 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 leaves room for a name unveil to become an event moment closer to the early tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele titles are sold as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that reveals little and a next wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The spooky-season slot opens a lane to take 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has established that a tactile, makeup-driven style can feel big on a tight budget. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror rush that centers foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio lines up two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, maintaining a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is presenting as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both devotees and fresh viewers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around setting detail, and monster craft, elements that can increase large-format demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on careful craft and archaic language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform plans for 2026 run on well-known grooves. The studio’s horror films transition to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a pacing that optimizes both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video will mix library titles with world buys and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using timely promos, spooky hubs, and editorial rows to extend momentum on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about own-slate titles and festival additions, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and turning into events arrivals with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a one-two of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has indicated interest to acquire select projects with prestige directors or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 lane with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is my company straightforward: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, reimagined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a cinema-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the September weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the December frame to move out. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-driven genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception prompts. Plan on 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 small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

IP versus fresh ideas

By count, 2026 leans in favor of the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is brand erosion. The pragmatic answer is to sell each entry as a new angle. Paramount is emphasizing character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-flavored turn from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the packaging is grounded enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Past-three-year patterns clarify the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that honored streaming windows did not hamper a hybrid test from hitting when the brand was potent. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in premium screens. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they pivot perspective and elevate scope. 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot in tandem, builds a path for marketing to connect the chapters through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries foreshadow a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that underscores grain and menace rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a first look that leans on mood over plot, a move that has resonated movies for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-referential reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature craft and set design, which favor convention floor stunts and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that spotlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is busy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid marquee brands. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the palette of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late Q1 and spring prime the summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

August into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited disclosures that put concept first.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can play the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s DNA. 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 machine mate turns into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: tone-first 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 unyielding boss claw to survive on a rugged island as the chain of command tilts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fright, driven by Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting premise that explores the panic of a child’s inconsistent impressions. Rating: to be announced. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A spoof revival that lampoons today’s horror trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBD. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new household caught in past horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-core horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: forthcoming. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and raw menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: click site prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three workable forces frame this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shifted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic 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 launches. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Calendar math also matters. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will trade weekends across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two 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 austere, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to prep 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 visual texture, 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

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand gravity where needed, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.