Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on global platforms

An eerie otherworldly fear-driven tale from screenwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an age-old horror when foreigners become tools in a devilish maze. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish saga of perseverance and age-old darkness that will transform fear-driven cinema this harvest season. Produced by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and cinematic tale follows five young adults who awaken isolated in a remote shack under the oppressive grip of Kyra, a cursed figure occupied by a timeless biblical demon. Be prepared to be drawn in by a motion picture event that unites intense horror with ancestral stories, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a time-honored motif in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is subverted when the demons no longer form from an outside force, but rather deep within. This symbolizes the grimmest part of these individuals. The result is a harrowing internal warfare where the events becomes a constant tug-of-war between righteousness and malevolence.


In a desolate terrain, five figures find themselves contained under the dark influence and haunting of a unknown entity. As the cast becomes incapacitated to resist her rule, exiled and stalked by entities unimaginable, they are confronted to endure their core terrors while the time harrowingly strikes toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust surges and ties implode, pressuring each person to doubt their character and the idea of decision-making itself. The cost surge with every passing moment, delivering a nightmarish journey that marries otherworldly suspense with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to uncover raw dread, an force that existed before mankind, manipulating emotional fractures, and dealing with a being that threatens selfhood when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra was about accessing something beyond human emotion. She is in denial until the spirit seizes her, and that flip is emotionally raw because it is so internal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering customers worldwide can watch this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first preview, which has racked up over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, presenting the nightmare to international horror buffs.


Witness this visceral trip into the unknown. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to experience these haunting secrets about the psyche.


For exclusive trailers, making-of footage, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across platforms and visit the official website.





American horror’s decisive shift: 2025 U.S. lineup braids together legend-infused possession, festival-born jolts, in parallel with legacy-brand quakes

Kicking off with grit-forward survival fare saturated with old testament echoes and onward to IP renewals in concert with focused festival visions, 2025 looks like horror’s most layered in tandem with tactically planned year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Major studios lay down anchors with established lines, at the same time streaming platforms saturate the fall with emerging auteurs in concert with primordial unease. Across the art-house lane, the art-house flank is carried on the echoes of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the other windows are mapped with care. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, notably this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are methodical, accordingly 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a bold swing: a modernized Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Helmed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

At summer’s close, the Warner lot drops the final chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re boards, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, with ghostly inner logic. This time the stakes climb, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, courting teens and the thirty something base. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Digital Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also notable is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It looks like sharp programming. No overstuffed canon. No franchise baggage. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. 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 remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Emerging Currents

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror returns
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

What’s Next: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The approaching fear lineup: entries, new stories, alongside A brimming Calendar engineered for goosebumps

Dek The upcoming genre season builds early with a January crush, from there stretches through midyear, and straight through the December corridor, fusing franchise firepower, original angles, and shrewd counterplay. Studio marketers and platforms are prioritizing responsible budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and social-fueled campaigns that turn these releases into culture-wide discussion.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The horror sector has grown into the dependable release in annual schedules, a segment that can grow when it breaks through and still protect the losses when it doesn’t. After 2023 signaled to leaders that responsibly budgeted pictures can own social chatter, the following year held pace with buzzy auteur projects and word-of-mouth wins. The tailwind extended into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and elevated films confirmed there is a lane for varied styles, from brand follow-ups to original features that translate worldwide. The end result for 2026 is a programming that appears tightly organized across the industry, with mapped-out bands, a harmony of known properties and new pitches, and a re-energized eye on theatrical windows that increase tail monetization on premium rental and SVOD.

Marketers add the genre now acts as a utility player on the grid. The genre can kick off on numerous frames, create a simple premise for trailers and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with crowds that respond on Thursday previews and return through the second weekend if the release delivers. Exiting a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 layout exhibits certainty in that approach. The calendar gets underway with a loaded January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for audience offsets, while saving space for a September to October window that extends to the fright window and past Halloween. The program also spotlights the expanded integration of specialized imprints and home platforms that can develop over weeks, stoke social talk, and scale up at the precise moment.

A companion trend is brand curation across linked properties and heritage properties. Distribution groups are not just producing another sequel. They are trying to present threaded continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a brandmark that announces a new tone or a cast configuration that connects a latest entry to a early run. At the simultaneously, the writer-directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are favoring practical craft, on-set effects and concrete locations. That blend delivers 2026 a lively combination of home base and invention, which is how the genre sells abroad.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount defines the early cadence with two prominent projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the spine, steering it as both a baton pass and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the narrative stance suggests a nostalgia-forward framework without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected rooted in classic imagery, first images of characters, and a tease cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a counterweight in summer, this one will build mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format supporting quick reframes to whatever rules the social talk that spring.

Universal has three clear lanes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, tragic, and commercial: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that unfolds into a harmful mate. The date nudges it to the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s marketing likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and snackable content that hybridizes affection and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under early labels 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 fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s pictures are presented as marquee events, with a teaser that reveals little and a follow-up trailer set that signal tone without plot the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor affords Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has proven that a in-your-face, prosthetic-heavy style can feel prestige on a tight budget. Look for a gore-forward summer horror charge that spotlights offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio mounts two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony 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 loyalists and curious audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign pieces around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify premium screens and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by rigorous craft and period language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The distributor has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is favorable.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ordering that fortifies both launch urgency and trial spikes in the later phase. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with global acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in catalog discovery, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and collection rows to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival acquisitions, confirming horror entries near launch and eventizing launches with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a laddered of precision releases and short jumps to platform that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown a willingness to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation peaks.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 lane with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clean: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, updated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a theatrical-first plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday frame to go wider. That positioning has helped for filmmaker-first horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Plan 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.

Brands and originals

By share, 2026 leans in favor of the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on household recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to pitch each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is underscoring relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a European tilt from a rising filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the bundle is known enough to Source convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years clarify the approach. In 2023, a exclusive window model that maintained windows did not preclude a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror rose in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reframe POV and expand the canvas. 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot back-to-back, lets marketing to relate entries through personae and themes and to keep assets in-market without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind 2026 horror forecast a continued preference for practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that underscores creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft features before rolling out a initial teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta recalibration that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature work and production design, which are ideal for booth activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel compelling. Look for trailers that center pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that play in premium auditoriums.

Month-by-month map

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 tonal palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. 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 serious, but the mix of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late winter and spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can win 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.

August and September into October leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a bridge slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that center concept over reveals.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card use.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s synthetic partner unfolds into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 heads 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: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 turns and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to horror, built on Cronin’s hands-on craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting setup that mediates the fear via a child’s wavering subjective view. Rating: TBD. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A genre lampoon that teases today’s horror trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: TBD. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further widens again, with a different family tethered to older hauntings. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on true survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: forthcoming. Production: ongoing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 historical diction and raw menace. Rating: TBA. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026, why now

Three practical forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shifted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest shareable moments from test screenings, select scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will line up across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, 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 sleeper-hit hunt 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a banquet, 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 goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, soundscape, 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 Promising 2026

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.