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

One terrifying otherworldly nightmare movie from author / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an archaic evil when guests become tokens in a demonic maze. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish episode of struggle and age-old darkness that will alter fear-driven cinema this scare season. Helmed by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and atmospheric thriller follows five young adults who emerge isolated in a unreachable cabin under the ominous influence of Kyra, a central character overtaken by a 2,000-year-old scriptural evil. Be prepared to be immersed by a screen-based experience that harmonizes bone-deep fear with arcane tradition, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a legendary element in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is reimagined when the beings no longer descend from an outside force, but rather through their own souls. This suggests the malevolent version of every character. The result is a harrowing emotional conflict where the suspense becomes a merciless fight between heaven and hell.


In a bleak landscape, five campers find themselves stuck under the evil dominion and inhabitation of a uncanny female figure. As the cast becomes unable to break her will, cut off and chased by powers beyond reason, they are required to reckon with their emotional phantoms while the doomsday meter harrowingly ticks onward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease surges and connections shatter, prompting each participant to challenge their self and the integrity of volition itself. The consequences accelerate with every instant, delivering a scare-fueled ride that merges otherworldly suspense with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to channel raw dread, an entity beyond time, working through human fragility, and challenging a presence that erodes the self when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra called for internalizing something unfamiliar to reason. She is oblivious until the spirit seizes her, and that metamorphosis is emotionally raw because it is so personal.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be released for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering households globally can witness this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first preview, which has attracted over 100K plays.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, giving access to the movie to viewers around the world.


Mark your calendar for this mind-warping path of possession. Experience *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to see these dark realities about mankind.


For exclusive trailers, production news, and social posts from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursed across entertainment pages and visit the film’s website.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: 2025 domestic schedule melds Mythic Possession, signature indie scares, in parallel with tentpole growls

Beginning with fight-to-live nightmare stories drawn from primordial scripture all the way to franchise returns as well as sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is tracking to be the most stratified along with intentionally scheduled year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Major studios lay down anchors using marquee IP, as OTT services load up the fall with new perspectives plus scriptural shivers. At the same time, indie storytellers is fueled by the tailwinds 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, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are targeted, therefore 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: The Return of Prestige Fear

The top end is active. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal starts the year with a confident swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. targeting mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Led by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner lot sets loose the finale from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson resumes command, and the memorable motifs 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.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The return delves further into myth, grows the animatronic horror lineup, reaching teens and game grownups. It posts in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Firsts: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a body horror chamber piece pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. 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.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No puffed out backstory. No continuity burden. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

What’s Next: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The oncoming terror release year: follow-ups, original films, together with A packed Calendar Built For frights

Dek The new genre cycle builds early with a January traffic jam, thereafter spreads through the summer months, and far into the December corridor, combining series momentum, fresh ideas, and savvy counter-scheduling. The major players are betting on smart costs, big-screen-first runs, and influencer-ready assets that pivot the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has grown into the consistent tool in release plans, a category that can grow when it performs and still cushion the exposure when it does not. After 2023 showed buyers that efficiently budgeted shockers can dominate social chatter, 2024 extended the rally with festival-darling auteurs and surprise hits. The upswing rolled into 2025, where legacy revivals and critical darlings highlighted there is capacity for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to original features that travel well. The result for 2026 is a schedule that shows rare alignment across studios, with purposeful groupings, a combination of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a revived attention on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now operates like a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can arrive on most weekends, deliver a simple premise for promo reels and vertical videos, and exceed norms with crowds that respond on previews Thursday and sustain through the second weekend if the entry lands. On the heels of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 mapping exhibits conviction in that logic. The slate starts with a crowded January lineup, then taps spring and early summer for balance, while leaving room for a September to October window that flows toward Halloween and into post-Halloween. The gridline also underscores the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and home platforms that can platform and widen, create conversation, and move wide at the inflection point.

A parallel macro theme is brand strategy across unified worlds and long-running brands. Studio teams are not just pushing another follow-up. They are setting up threaded continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a title presentation that suggests a recalibrated tone or a talent selection that reconnects a next film to a early run. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the most anticipated originals are returning to real-world builds, makeup and prosthetics and specific settings. That blend delivers the 2026 slate a confident blend of home base and discovery, which is how the films export.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount marks the early tempo with two headline moves that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the center, marketing it as both a baton pass and a classic-mode character-centered film. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture points to a memory-charged angle without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push rooted in classic imagery, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will play up. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will pursue general-audience talk through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format fitting quick updates to whatever leads trend lines that spring.

Universal has three specific bets. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, melancholic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man brings home an virtual partner that escalates into a perilous partner. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to replay eerie street stunts and short-cut promos that interlaces intimacy and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. The filmmaker’s films are branded as marquee events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second trailer wave that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-month date affords Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has established that a blood-soaked, physical-effects centered strategy can feel elevated on a tight budget. Expect a blood-and-grime summer horror hit that spotlights foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio mounts two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, continuing a consistent supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is billing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both players and first-timers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build assets around canon, and monster aesthetics, elements that can increase IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in meticulous craft and archaic language, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is strong.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform plans for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s slate shift to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a cadence that expands both initial urgency and subscription bumps in the later window. Prime Video stitches together catalogue additions with worldwide entries and limited runs in theaters when the data supports it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library engagement, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and programmed rows to prolong the run on the annual genre haul. Netflix plays opportunist about original films and festival deals, finalizing horror entries closer to launch and elevating as drops debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a dual-phase of tailored theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a situational basis. The platform has shown appetite to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation heats up.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 slate with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is straightforward: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, retooled for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a standard theatrical run for the title, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the fall weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas window to increase reach. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-first horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many 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 supports. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using limited theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By number, 2026 favors the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness cultural cachet. The challenge, as ever, is diminishing returns. The practical approach is to position each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is leading with relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-accented approach from a buzzed-about director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the package is comforting enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Comparable trends from navigate here recent years make sense of the template. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that held distribution windows did not prevent a hybrid test from thriving when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to link the films through personae and themes and to keep assets in-market without lulls.

How the look and feel evolve

The director conversations behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued bias toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that emphasizes texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and creates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta pivot that centers an original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature and environment design, which favor con floor moments and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that spotlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is full. 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 somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month closes 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 legit, but the range of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Q1 into Q2 load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

End of summer through fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a bridge slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited asset reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s intelligent companion unfolds into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

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 run into a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 try to survive on a cut-off island as the control dynamic shifts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 vision that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s hands-on craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting narrative that channels the fear through a preteen’s unreliable subjective lens. Rating: forthcoming. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-scale and headline-actor led eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that needles in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fixations. Rating: pending. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 surges, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a young family lashed to older hauntings. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-first horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: forthcoming. Production: active. 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 period-precise speech and primal menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces shape this lineup. First, production that downshifted or reshuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and accelerated 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine social-ready stingers from test screenings, managed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

The slot calculus is real. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can command a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will coexist across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The search for sleepers 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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, 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 cadence and diversity. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, 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 maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, audio design, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand heft where it matters, fresh vision 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the frights sell the seats.