Ancient Terror stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

A chilling paranormal horror tale from literary architect / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an long-buried curse when passersby become subjects in a cursed conflict. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing story of staying alive and primordial malevolence that will alter terror storytelling this scare season. Crafted by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and claustrophobic motion picture follows five characters who emerge sealed in a wilderness-bound dwelling under the dark influence of Kyra, a haunted figure haunted by a timeless biblical force. Be prepared to be gripped by a immersive outing that melds raw fear with arcane tradition, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a mainstay trope in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is inverted when the beings no longer emerge from elsewhere, but rather deep within. This symbolizes the most sinister element of these individuals. The result is a gripping spiritual tug-of-war where the suspense becomes a unyielding conflict between innocence and sin.


In a abandoned forest, five youths find themselves cornered under the ominous aura and overtake of a unidentified being. As the group becomes paralyzed to evade her power, disconnected and preyed upon by creatures unimaginable, they are driven to acknowledge their inner demons while the doomsday meter without pity moves toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion rises and alliances implode, demanding each soul to reflect on their personhood and the concept of free will itself. The intensity accelerate with every breath, delivering a scare-fueled ride that weaves together supernatural terror with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to tap into pure dread, an threat older than civilization itself, operating within emotional vulnerability, and navigating a being that erodes the self when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra was about accessing something rooted in terror. She is oblivious until the control shifts, and that transformation is gut-wrenching because it is so unshielded.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for viewing beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure subscribers internationally can be part of this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original clip, which has racked up over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, presenting the nightmare to scare fans abroad.


Witness this soul-jarring ride through nightmares. Confront *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to witness these dark realities about the psyche.


For bonus footage, extra content, and promotions from the story's source, follow @YACFilm across Facebook and TikTok and visit our film’s homepage.





U.S. horror’s decisive shift: calendar year 2025 American release plan Mixes biblical-possession ideas, independent shockers, paired with franchise surges

Moving from fight-to-live nightmare stories grounded in scriptural legend to franchise returns in concert with focused festival visions, 2025 is tracking to be the most variegated together with tactically planned year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio majors hold down the year with known properties, simultaneously streamers pack the fall with new voices paired with old-world menace. Across the art-house lane, the artisan tier is carried on the afterglow of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween holding the peak, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, though in this cycle, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are surgical, as a result 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal banner starts the year with a marquee bet: a refreshed Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a sharp contemporary setting. Directed by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Booked into mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Led by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer tapers, the Warner Bros. banner bows the concluding entry from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson is back, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: throwback unease, trauma in the foreground, and a cold supernatural calculus. This run ups the stakes, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It books December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Digital Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a two hander body horror spiral featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

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

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Shaped and helmed 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. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It looks like sharp programming. No overstuffed canon. No brand fatigue. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Brands: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, guided by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Dials to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror ascends again
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming scare lineup: installments, Originals, as well as A packed Calendar tailored for shocks

Dek: The arriving horror cycle crams immediately with a January logjam, after that runs through the mid-year, and well into the festive period, braiding franchise firepower, original angles, and shrewd calendar placement. Studios and streamers are betting on tight budgets, box-office-first windows, and shareable marketing that convert genre releases into water-cooler talk.

How the genre looks for 2026

This category has become the consistent counterweight in annual schedules, a corner that can break out when it lands and still safeguard the floor when it does not. After the 2023 year showed studio brass that responsibly budgeted fright engines can own the discourse, 2024 held pace with high-profile filmmaker pieces and stealth successes. The tailwind extended into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries proved there is appetite for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to original features that scale internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a slate that seems notably aligned across players, with purposeful groupings, a combination of established brands and original hooks, and a revived attention on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and home platforms.

Studio leaders note the category now behaves like a wildcard on the rollout map. The genre can premiere on numerous frames, yield a clear pitch for teasers and platform-native cuts, and outpace with ticket buyers that appear on preview nights and continue through the next weekend if the feature satisfies. Emerging from a work stoppage lag, the 2026 pattern exhibits certainty in that approach. The slate begins with a loaded January schedule, then taps spring and early summer for balance, while keeping space for a autumn stretch that flows toward the fright window and into November. The calendar also illustrates the deeper integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can grow from platform, spark evangelism, and grow at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is IP cultivation across ongoing universes and classic IP. The companies are not just making another chapter. They are looking to package story carry-over with a must-see charge, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a ensemble decision that ties a incoming chapter to a first wave. At the same time, the visionaries behind the eagerly awaited originals are celebrating hands-on technique, real effects and distinct locales. That pairing offers 2026 a vital pairing of brand comfort and unexpected turns, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight projects that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the front, positioning the film as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-forward chapter. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a fan-service aware framework without repeating the last two entries’ sibling arc. Watch for a push anchored in recognizable motifs, initial cast looks, and a trailer cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will double down on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will hunt general-audience talk through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick turns to whatever leads genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three discrete entries. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is straightforward, melancholic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man implements an virtual partner that grows into a dangerous lover. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to renew off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that hybridizes longing and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a name unveil to become an attention spike closer to the teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His entries are set up as event films, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween this content slot gives the studio room 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has long shown that a raw, practical-first strategy can feel top-tier on a tight budget. Look for a gore-forward summer horror charge that pushes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, holding a bankable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is presenting as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign pieces around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive premium booking interest and convention buzz.

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 rooted in meticulous craft and language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform windowing in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate move to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a structure that expands both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the late-window. Prime Video will mix outside acquisitions with worldwide buys and limited runs in theaters when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library engagement, using seasonal hubs, October hubs, and curated strips to lengthen the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps options open about in-house releases and festival snaps, locking in horror entries tight to release and elevating as drops arrivals with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a staged of selective theatrical runs and prompt platform moves that translates talk to trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to buy select projects with accomplished filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 sequence with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is uncomplicated: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, refined for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a cinema-first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday frame to go wider. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-first horror 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 solid projection is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception drives. 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 hand in hand, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By proportion, 2026 leans toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The risk, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to package each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-tinted vision from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the deal build is comforting enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent-year comps illuminate the playbook. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not stop a simultaneous release test from hitting when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror punched above its weight in premium formats. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they shift POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, allows marketing to relate entries through character and theme and to keep assets in-market without hiatuses.

Technique and craft currents

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 entries hint at a continued emphasis on in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that foregrounds atmosphere and fear rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-correct language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that keeps plot minimal, a move that has delivered 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 jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta recalibration that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will live or die on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel key. Look for trailers that emphasize razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in big rooms.

How the year maps out

January is loaded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid marquee brands. The month winds down 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 thick, but the tonal variety creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into 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 spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-October slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited disclosures that stress concept over spoilers.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card spend.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s synthetic partner unfolds into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 severe boss scramble to survive on a isolated island as the pecking order swivels and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fright, grounded in Cronin’s in-camera craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting narrative that toys with the fright of a child’s fragile read. Rating: TBA. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A comic send-up that lampoons present-day genre chatter and true crime fixations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. 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 ignites, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a another family entangled with returning horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A new start designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: closely held. Rating: undetermined. Production: in progress. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 language and primal menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three practical forces shape this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shifted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, curated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will trade weekends across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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-hit hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-mid 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 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, efficient screen counts, 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 texture, soundcraft, and picture 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.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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, produce clean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.