Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

This haunting otherworldly suspense story from screenwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an primordial terror when guests become puppets in a devilish contest. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing chronicle of struggle and prehistoric entity that will revamp the fear genre this fall. Directed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and moody thriller follows five young adults who snap to stuck in a secluded cottage under the oppressive influence of Kyra, a haunted figure inhabited by a ancient biblical force. Steel yourself to be immersed by a theatrical adventure that integrates soul-chilling terror with legendary tales, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a time-honored foundation in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is flipped when the monsters no longer come from external sources, but rather internally. This represents the most sinister element of all involved. The result is a bone-chilling cognitive warzone where the tension becomes a brutal conflict between heaven and hell.


In a haunting terrain, five characters find themselves isolated under the sinister sway and haunting of a enigmatic woman. As the ensemble becomes powerless to escape her dominion, stranded and tracked by terrors beyond reason, they are forced to wrestle with their deepest fears while the timeline without pity winds toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread mounts and partnerships collapse, demanding each character to reconsider their being and the notion of volition itself. The pressure magnify with every breath, delivering a horror experience that blends unearthly horror with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to tap into pure dread, an entity rooted in antiquity, embedding itself in soul-level flaws, and challenging a spirit that dismantles free will when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant channeling something beyond human emotion. She is innocent until the haunting manifests, and that metamorphosis is shocking because it is so visceral.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving audiences worldwide can dive into this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its intro video, which has garnered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, making the film to global fright lovers.


Mark your calendar for this visceral spiral into evil. Confront *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to face these nightmarish insights about the psyche.


For director insights, filmmaker commentary, and press updates from the creators, follow @YACFilm across media channels and visit our film’s homepage.





American horror’s tipping point: 2025 in focus domestic schedule fuses myth-forward possession, microbudget gut-punches, together with brand-name tremors

Ranging from survival horror saturated with primordial scripture all the way to installment follow-ups in concert with surgical indie voices, 2025 looks like the most dimensioned as well as calculated campaign year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. top-tier distributors are anchoring the year through proven series, concurrently OTT services prime the fall with new voices plus primordial unease. On another front, festival-forward creators is propelled by the uplift from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, though in this cycle, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are exacting, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige fear returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal banner kicks off the frame with an audacious swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, in an immediate now. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. targeting mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. From director Eli Craig anchored by 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. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer wanes, the Warner lot sets loose the finale from its dependable horror line: 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. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re engages, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: vintage toned fear, trauma centered writing, along with eerie supernatural rules. This pass pushes higher, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The new chapter enriches the lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It drops in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Firsts: No Budget, No Problem

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No swollen lore. No sequel clutter. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are more runway than museum.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. 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 tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trend Lines

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror swings back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The coming 2026 Horror lineup: entries, standalone ideas, together with A stacked Calendar tailored for nightmares

Dek The current terror year crowds early with a January wave, after that unfolds through the summer months, and pushing into the December corridor, mixing marquee clout, new concepts, and calculated release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are prioritizing efficient budgets, big-screen-first runs, and influencer-ready assets that turn genre releases into national conversation.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the bankable play in release plans, a genre that can scale when it connects and still limit the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year demonstrated to studio brass that disciplined-budget shockers can dominate audience talk, the following year carried the beat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where returns and filmmaker-prestige bets proved there is appetite for many shades, from franchise continuations to original one-offs that carry overseas. The end result for the 2026 slate is a roster that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with mapped-out bands, a pairing of legacy names and untested plays, and a reinvigorated eye on box-office windows that increase tail monetization on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Buyers contend the genre now performs as a versatile piece on the grid. The genre can bow on nearly any frame, generate a tight logline for trailers and platform-native cuts, and overperform with ticket buyers that line up on first-look nights and stick through the second weekend if the release pays off. Emerging from a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 layout indicates certainty in that playbook. The year kicks off with a busy January corridor, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while making space for a autumn push that reaches into Halloween and afterwards. The schedule also reflects the ongoing integration of indie arms and SVOD players that can platform and widen, spark evangelism, and widen at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is series management across ongoing universes and classic IP. Studios are not just rolling another installment. They are trying to present threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a tonal shift or a talent selection that links a incoming chapter to a foundational era. At the alongside this, the creative teams behind the most anticipated originals are embracing material texture, special makeup and distinct locales. That fusion affords 2026 a confident blend of recognition and freshness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount defines the early cadence with two high-profile releases that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the lead, signaling it as both a cross-generational handoff and a foundation-forward character-centered film. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance telegraphs a roots-evoking bent without repeating the last two entries’ sibling arc. A campaign is expected leaning on iconic art, character previews, and a tiered teaser plan slated for late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will drive broad awareness through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever owns trend lines that spring.

Universal has three differentiated entries. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is crisp, sorrow-tinged, and premise-first: a grieving man installs an machine companion that mutates into a deadly partner. The date places it at the front of a thick month, with marketing at Universal likely to bring back uncanny-valley stunts and snackable content that hybridizes affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a proper title to become an teaser payoff closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His projects are positioned as director events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has consistently shown that a gnarly, practical-effects forward execution can feel premium on a lean spend. Look for a grime-caked summer horror shock that embraces international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, preserving a proven supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has click to read more long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is presenting as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both franchise faithful and general audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around mythos, and monster design, elements that can drive premium format interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins 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 built on textural authenticity and period language, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus’s team has already set the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is supportive.

Streaming windows and tactics

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre slate shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a pacing that maximizes both FOMO and sign-up spikes in the downstream. Prime Video continues to mix licensed titles with worldwide buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their edges in back-catalog play, using timely promos, genre hubs, and featured rows to sustain interest on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix films and festival additions, dating horror entries toward the drop and staging as events drops with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a paired of limited theatrical footprints and quick platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown a willingness to buy select projects with acclaimed directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for retention when the genre conversation intensifies.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 slate with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, upgraded for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then using the holiday slot to broaden. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using precision theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their community.

Series vs standalone

By skew, the 2026 slate bends toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit marquee value. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand erosion. The preferred tactic is to sell each entry as a new angle. Paramount is foregrounding character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a European tilt from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the team and cast is grounded enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and advance-audience nights.

The last three-year set help explain the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not prevent a simultaneous release test from working when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror outperformed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they pivot perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends 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 produced back-to-back, allows marketing to cross-link entries through protagonists and motifs and to maintain a flow of assets without hiatuses.

Craft and creative trends

The director conversations behind the year’s horror forecast a continued turn toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that underscores tone and tension rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft coverage before rolling out a teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta recalibration that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on monster realization and design, which match well with fan conventions and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel key. Look for trailers that underscore precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is busy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid heftier brand moves. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the spread of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can win the holiday when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s virtual companion becomes something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 tough boss push to survive on a rugged island as the control balance flips and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to nightmare, built on Cronin’s practical effects and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting piece that manipulates the fear of a child’s inconsistent senses. Rating: pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-financed and name-above-title supernatural 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 parody reboot that pokes at contemporary horror memes and true-crime manias. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new clan linked to lingering terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survivalist horror over action spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: to be announced. Production: in progress. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 era-faithful speech and primal menace. Rating: TBA. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three operational forces frame this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or reshuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and accelerated 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on clippable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will cluster across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, 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 tempo and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, 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 sequence upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sonics, and cinematography 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

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is name recognition where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.