Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a spine tingling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

This hair-raising metaphysical nightmare movie from cinematographer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an primeval malevolence when unfamiliar people become vehicles in a fiendish conflict. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing episode of perseverance and age-old darkness that will revolutionize terror storytelling this harvest season. Created by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and eerie film follows five people who suddenly rise stranded in a wooded house under the oppressive dominion of Kyra, a haunted figure inhabited by a 2,000-year-old religious nightmare. Anticipate to be captivated by a theatrical experience that blends primitive horror with arcane tradition, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a long-standing tradition in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is flipped when the presences no longer form from elsewhere, but rather deep within. This represents the most sinister version of the victims. The result is a intense mental war where the emotions becomes a ongoing face-off between virtue and vice.


In a isolated wild, five characters find themselves contained under the sinister sway and overtake of a secretive character. As the team becomes submissive to evade her command, detached and stalked by beings unfathomable, they are compelled to acknowledge their greatest panics while the time unceasingly ticks toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion amplifies and partnerships erode, coercing each participant to reconsider their personhood and the concept of liberty itself. The consequences magnify with every beat, delivering a scare-fueled ride that marries paranormal dread with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to explore elemental fright, an spirit from prehistory, embedding itself in human fragility, and challenging a evil that erodes the self when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra involved tapping into something more primal than sorrow. She is innocent until the curse activates, and that turn is haunting because it is so emotional.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for digital release beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering horror lovers no matter where they are can face this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its release of trailer #1, which has collected over 100K plays.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, presenting the nightmare to global fright lovers.


Mark your calendar for this mind-warping voyage through terror. Join *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to face these nightmarish insights about existence.


For teasers, special features, and reveals from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official movie site.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: 2025 across markets U.S. calendar blends ancient-possession motifs, underground frights, plus IP aftershocks

Ranging from life-or-death fear suffused with primordial scripture and onward to series comebacks paired with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is lining up as the most complex in tandem with blueprinted year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios plant stakes across the year through proven series, at the same time streamers front-load the fall with emerging auteurs set against legend-coded dread. At the same time, independent banners is surfing the tailwinds from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, distinctly in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are precise, so 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 set the base, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s distribution arm kicks off the frame with a marquee bet: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. landing in mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Helmed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer eases, the WB camp bows the concluding entry from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, 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 sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: throwback unease, trauma centered writing, with ghostly inner logic. This time, the stakes are raised, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It arrives in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Plays: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror chamber piece fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. 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 all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, 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 unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in 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 reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

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

Franchise Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Dials to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror retakes ground
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: 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 such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The next fright cycle: returning titles, universe starters, together with A busy Calendar calibrated for shocks

Dek: The upcoming terror slate clusters from day one with a January bottleneck, subsequently spreads through peak season, and far into the December corridor, marrying series momentum, novel approaches, and smart counterplay. The major players are doubling down on responsible budgets, cinema-first plans, and social-driven marketing that elevate these offerings into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The genre has emerged as the consistent option in distribution calendars, a lane that can break out when it connects and still protect the drag when it underperforms. After 2023 reassured leaders that mid-range entries can shape the discourse, the following year held pace with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The upswing flowed into 2025, where revivals and festival-grade titles demonstrated there is an opening for several lanes, from brand follow-ups to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The net effect for 2026 is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across distributors, with defined corridors, a pairing of familiar brands and first-time concepts, and a re-energized attention on exclusive windows that drive downstream revenue on premium on-demand and home streaming.

Planners observe the horror lane now serves as a utility player on the distribution slate. The genre can arrive on most weekends, create a clear pitch for marketing and shorts, and lead with audiences that come out on first-look nights and keep coming through the second weekend if the offering delivers. In the wake of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 pattern underscores confidence in that logic. The slate commences with a heavy January run, then uses spring and early summer for contrast, while reserving space for a autumn stretch that connects to All Hallows period and beyond. The arrangement also underscores the ongoing integration of indie arms and platforms that can platform a title, create conversation, and roll out at the sweet spot.

A parallel macro theme is IP cultivation across brand ecosystems and legacy franchises. Studio teams are not just mounting another next film. They are looking to package story carry-over with a specialness, whether that is a graphic identity that flags a reframed mood or a lead change that links a latest entry to a vintage era. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the marquee originals are returning to real-world builds, on-set effects and specific settings. That convergence offers the 2026 slate a healthy mix of known notes and discovery, which is the formula for international play.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two centerpiece pushes that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the front, framing it as both a handoff and a origin-leaning character piece. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture hints at a throwback-friendly mode without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign rooted in iconic art, intro reveals, and a tease cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will feature. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue general-audience talk through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick turns to whatever owns genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three separate entries. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is elegant, loss-driven, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man purchases an artificial companion that mutates into a murderous partner. The date slots it at the front of a thick month, with the marketing arm likely to iterate on viral uncanny stunts and bite-size content that mixes devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a branding reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the debut look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele projects are framed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that holds back and a second wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The pre-Halloween slot opens a lane to command 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 guides, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has demonstrated that a gnarly, hands-on effects strategy can feel elevated on a lean spend. Expect a red-band summer horror shock that centers foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio sets two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, preserving a steady supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is framing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both loyalists and casuals. The fall slot provides the studio time to build artifacts around canon, and monster design, elements that can increase premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on minute detail and dialect, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is positive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Windowing plans in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s horror titles move to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that elevates both FOMO and sub growth in the after-window. Prime Video combines licensed films with world buys and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in archive usage, using prominent placements, horror hubs, and editorial rows to prolong the run on overall cume. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival acquisitions, dating horror entries near launch and framing as events drops with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a laddered of targeted cinema placements and accelerated platforming that translates talk to trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a discrete basis. The platform has been willing to invest in select projects with established auteurs or star packages, then give them a modest 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 capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 arc with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is simple: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, recalibrated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festival season if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday slot to open out. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-first horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception supports. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using limited theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their membership.

Brands and originals

By weight, 2026 tilts in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness name recognition. The caveat, as ever, is overexposure. The practical approach is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is bringing forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a ascendant talent. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the assembly is comforting enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years clarify the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept streaming intact did not stop a day-date try from working when the brand was strong. In 2024, precision craft horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they pivot perspective and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, enables marketing to interlace chapters through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets alive without hiatuses.

How the films are being made

The shop talk behind the 2026 entries point to a continued shift toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that emphasizes mood and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that withholds plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and generates shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta refresh that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature and environment design, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that play in premium auditoriums.

How the year maps out

January is jammed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid heavier IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tone spread makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late winter and spring load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can thrive 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 rotated off PLF.

End of summer through fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder season window that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited advance reveals that put concept first.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card use.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s virtual companion grows into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends 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 useful reference ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: atmospheric 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 unyielding boss claw to survive on a desolate island as the power balance swivels and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster imp source to fear, anchored by Cronin’s material craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting scenario that leverages the terror of a child’s wobbly impressions. Rating: TBA. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed and marquee-led spirit-world 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 satire sequel that riffs on today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a unlucky family caught in ancient dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survivalist horror over action spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. 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: to be announced. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBA. Production: continuing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 antique diction and raw menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three pragmatic forces inform this lineup. First, production that eased or re-sequenced in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly 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, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, select scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

The slot calculus is real. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, making room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 Check This Out lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 work those windows. 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, 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 tactility, audio design, 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.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is name recognition where it counts, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, guard the secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.