Primordial Terror Stirs in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling chiller, debuting Oct 2025 on major platforms

An chilling unearthly scare-fest from literary architect / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an ancient fear when unknowns become instruments in a hellish struggle. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing narrative of overcoming and prehistoric entity that will reshape fear-driven cinema this spooky time. Visualized by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and emotionally thick screenplay follows five teens who suddenly rise caught in a cut-off dwelling under the malevolent manipulation of Kyra, a tormented girl haunted by a ancient ancient fiend. Anticipate to be shaken by a audio-visual spectacle that fuses visceral dread with timeless legends, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a well-established pillar in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is radically shifted when the forces no longer arise beyond the self, but rather through their own souls. This portrays the shadowy shade of each of them. The result is a bone-chilling internal warfare where the drama becomes a brutal battle between good and evil.


In a isolated terrain, five friends find themselves stuck under the possessive dominion and overtake of a unidentified apparition. As the survivors becomes paralyzed to evade her grasp, exiled and stalked by terrors impossible to understand, they are confronted to wrestle with their darkest emotions while the moments unceasingly runs out toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion deepens and links implode, driving each protagonist to reflect on their being and the idea of self-determination itself. The cost accelerate with every minute, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that fuses otherworldly panic with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to dive into primal fear, an darkness from ancient eras, feeding on emotional fractures, and examining a darkness that threatens selfhood when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra needed manifesting something unfamiliar to reason. She is unaware until the haunting manifests, and that metamorphosis is bone-chilling because it is so deep.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—ensuring households worldwide can watch this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original promo, which has been viewed over strong viewer count.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, bringing the film to viewers around the world.


Experience this visceral voyage through terror. Enter *Young & Cursed* this launch day to acknowledge these terrifying truths about the psyche.


For featurettes, extra content, and press updates via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across entertainment pages and visit the movie portal.





Current horror’s Turning Point: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule interlaces biblical-possession ideas, Indie Shockers, plus returning-series thunder

Across pressure-cooker survival tales grounded in near-Eastern lore and extending to installment follow-ups set beside surgical indie voices, 2025 is lining up as the most complex and strategic year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios set cornerstones through proven series, while OTT services pack the fall with emerging auteurs in concert with ancient terrors. On the festival side, horror’s indie wing is carried on the uplift from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the other windows are mapped with care. The fall stretch is the proving field, distinctly in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are intentional, therefore 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

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

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline kicks off the frame with a marquee bet: a reconceived Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Slated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. From director Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

By late summer, Warner Bros. rolls out the capstone from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the outline is tried, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: vintage toned fear, trauma as theme, and eerie supernatural logic. The ante is higher this round, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, courting teens and the thirty something base. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Digital Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the quieter side is Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga with Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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. That is a savvy move. No heavy handed lore. No IP hangover. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

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

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror returns
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

What’s Next: Fall saturation and a winter joker

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The coming 2026 fright release year: Sequels, new stories, paired with A jammed Calendar Built For chills

Dek The emerging genre calendar builds early with a January traffic jam, thereafter flows through summer, and straight through the holiday frame, fusing marquee clout, original angles, and tactical alternatives. Distributors with platforms are embracing efficient budgets, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that position these offerings into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror sector has solidified as the predictable move in programming grids, a space that can spike when it resonates and still protect the liability when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured strategy teams that modestly budgeted pictures can shape the discourse, the following year extended the rally with filmmaker-forward plays and under-the-radar smashes. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and festival-grade titles demonstrated there is a lane for multiple flavors, from brand follow-ups to original one-offs that export nicely. The takeaway for 2026 is a schedule that feels more orchestrated than usual across players, with mapped-out bands, a combination of household franchises and original hooks, and a refocused emphasis on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium on-demand and digital services.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now acts as a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can kick off on a wide range of weekends, furnish a clear pitch for trailers and vertical videos, and exceed norms with crowds that respond on Thursday previews and sustain through the week two if the feature connects. Post a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 layout demonstrates assurance in that logic. The slate starts with a loaded January window, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while making space for a autumn push that connects to late October and into post-Halloween. The program also illustrates the ongoing integration of specialty arms and streamers that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and broaden at the timely point.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across connected story worlds and heritage properties. Studios are not just rolling another return. They are seeking to position lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a brandmark that indicates a new tone or a star attachment that bridges a fresh chapter to a heyday. At the very same time, the visionaries behind the eagerly awaited originals are embracing material texture, practical effects and grounded locations. That convergence gives 2026 a lively combination of known notes and novelty, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount fires first with two big-ticket titles that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the heart, steering it as both a passing of the torch and a rootsy character piece. Production is active in Atlanta, and the tonal posture suggests a nostalgia-forward mode without retreading the last two entries’ sibling arc. A campaign is expected rooted in franchise iconography, initial cast looks, and a staggered trailer plan slated for late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off 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 in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will play up. As a summer alternative, this one will seek general-audience talk through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick adjustments to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is clean, tragic, and commercial: a grieving man onboards an machine companion that shifts into a killer companion. The date places it at the front of a stacked January, with the Universal machine likely to iterate on strange in-person beats and quick hits that hybridizes longing and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a official title to become an fan moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His projects are framed as filmmaker events, with a minimalist tease and a second trailer wave that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame offers Universal room to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has shown that a visceral, practical-effects forward approach can feel high-value on a tight budget. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that spotlights worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio lines up two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, sustaining a evergreen supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is describing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both franchise faithful and novices. The fall slot gives Sony time to build materials around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can increase deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by historical precision and dialect, 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 build and expand if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform plans for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s genre entries flow to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a stair-step that enhances both initial urgency and sub growth in the tail. Prime Video interleaves third-party pickups with worldwide entries and targeted theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in deep cuts, using prominent placements, Halloween hubs, and editorial rows to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix remains opportunistic about original films and festival pickups, locking in horror entries closer to launch and eventizing rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of targeted theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with accomplished filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 lane with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is clear: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, elevated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical rollout for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday corridor to open out. That positioning has worked well for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception justifies. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using select theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Series vs standalone

By skew, the 2026 slate tips toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on brand equity. The watch-out, as ever, is diminishing returns. The go-to fix is to package each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is emphasizing character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a rising filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the deal build is steady enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps frame the method. In 2023, a exclusive window model that held distribution windows did not deter a day-date try from winning when the brand was robust. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror outperformed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they change perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances 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 shot consecutively, lets marketing to cross-link entries through character and theme and to keep materials circulating without extended gaps.

Technique and craft currents

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the upcoming entries indicate a continued tilt toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates tone and tension rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and medieval diction, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft spotlights before rolling out a tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta recalibration that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster work and world-building, which match well with booth activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that underscore surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in big rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is stacked. 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 brooding contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month buttons 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 serious, but the range of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth holds.

Late winter and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a transitional slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a minimalist tease strategy and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s intelligent companion shifts into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss push to survive on a uninhabited island as the hierarchy inverts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to terror, anchored by Cronin’s material craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May my company 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting narrative that refracts terror through a youth’s volatile inner lens. Rating: TBD. Production: wrapped. 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 back in creative roles. Logline: {A parody return that pokes at of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fervors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 flares, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new household lashed to older hauntings. Rating: TBD. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-first horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBA. Production: continuing. 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 time-true diction and ancient menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why this year, why now

Three hands-on forces shape this lineup. First, production that stalled or reshuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming launches. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, freeing space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

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

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal Young & Cursed 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 quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, sound, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand heft where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.