Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens age-old dread, a chilling supernatural thriller, rolling out October 2025 across leading streamers

A terrifying ghostly nightmare movie from cinematographer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an prehistoric evil when outsiders become pawns in a malevolent experiment. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing portrayal of overcoming and old world terror that will remodel the fear genre this autumn. Realized by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and immersive film follows five strangers who awaken stranded in a wilderness-bound house under the menacing sway of Kyra, a female lead possessed by a antiquated Old Testament spirit. Get ready to be captivated by a screen-based venture that combines raw fear with ancestral stories, debuting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a legendary narrative in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is challenged when the entities no longer come from external sources, but rather internally. This embodies the most sinister element of all involved. The result is a relentless identity crisis where the events becomes a intense confrontation between divinity and wickedness.


In a bleak landscape, five adults find themselves stuck under the fiendish force and infestation of a secretive being. As the survivors becomes unresisting to escape her power, detached and tracked by entities beyond comprehension, they are made to deal with their inner horrors while the countdown ruthlessly edges forward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust amplifies and partnerships fracture, urging each individual to scrutinize their self and the principle of self-determination itself. The pressure escalate with every tick, delivering a horror experience that intertwines spiritual fright with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to dig into elemental fright, an entity beyond recorded history, working through fragile psyche, and wrestling with a curse that dismantles free will when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra was centered on something unfamiliar to reason. She is oblivious until the haunting manifests, and that flip is shocking because it is so personal.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be available for digital release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—ensuring users internationally can enjoy this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its release of trailer #1, which has garnered over 100K plays.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, bringing the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Don’t miss this haunted exploration of dread. Face *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to survive these haunting secrets about existence.


For featurettes, on-set glimpses, and reveals directly from production, follow @YACFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official website.





Today’s horror inflection point: the 2025 cycle U.S. Slate braids together ancient-possession motifs, indie terrors, set against series shake-ups

Beginning with survival horror rooted in primordial scripture and onward to installment follow-ups plus keen independent perspectives, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated in tandem with strategic year for the modern era.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. top-tier distributors plant stakes across the year through proven series, while subscription platforms front-load the fall with discovery plays set against old-world menace. At the same time, indie storytellers is surfing the echoes of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, notably this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are exacting, which means 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s slate leads off the quarter with a risk-forward move: a contemporary Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a modern-day environment. Steered by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. targeting mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner lot rolls out the capstone inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: nostalgic menace, trauma as theme, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time the stakes climb, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, courting teens and the thirty something base. It bows in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also rising is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative led by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It looks like sharp programming. No swollen lore. No continuity burden. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Heritage Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, from Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror reemerges
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theaters are 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 and the Winter Wildcard

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The approaching fright calendar year ahead: Sequels, original films, together with A Crowded Calendar optimized for shocks

Dek: The current horror season lines up from the jump with a January pile-up, subsequently spreads through June and July, and running into the holiday frame, balancing brand heft, new concepts, and strategic counterweight. Major distributors and platforms are embracing mid-range economics, theatrical-first rollouts, and social-driven marketing that position genre releases into all-audience topics.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror sector has become the predictable move in annual schedules, a segment that can lift when it catches and still buffer the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for top brass that cost-conscious genre plays can dominate mainstream conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with buzzy auteur projects and slow-burn breakouts. The energy rolled into 2025, where revivals and premium-leaning entries showed there is a lane for a variety of tones, from returning installments to original one-offs that translate worldwide. The result for 2026 is a run that appears tightly organized across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a blend of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a revived emphasis on theater exclusivity that enhance post-theatrical value on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Buyers contend the genre now serves as a plug-and-play option on the calendar. The genre can premiere on numerous frames, create a grabby hook for teasers and reels, and outperform with audiences that appear on previews Thursday and sustain through the week two if the offering connects. Coming out of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 plan signals comfort in that approach. The calendar begins with a loaded January run, then taps spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while reserving space for a fall cadence that runs into All Hallows period and into early November. The map also highlights the ongoing integration of specialized labels and OTT outlets that can platform a title, create conversation, and go nationwide at the strategic time.

A parallel macro theme is brand curation across linked properties and legacy franchises. Major shops are not just making another follow-up. They are aiming to frame continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a art treatment that signals a new vibe or a casting choice that reconnects a new installment to a classic era. At the in tandem, the visionaries behind the marquee originals are championing physical effects work, makeup and prosthetics and distinct locales. That fusion affords the 2026 slate a strong blend of home base and newness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount defines the early cadence with two prominent titles that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the front, angling it as both a succession moment and a DNA-forward character-focused installment. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a nostalgia-forward framework without repeating the last two entries’ sibling arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive anchored in recognizable motifs, character-first teases, and a promo sequence arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will drive broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format supporting quick adjustments to whatever tops the discourse that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tight, tragic, and concept-forward: a grieving man activates an synthetic partner that mutates into a dangerous lover. The date locates it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to iterate on uncanny-valley stunts and micro spots that hybridizes longing and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules 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 official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a proper title to become an PR pop closer to the first look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s pictures are treated as event films, with a concept-forward tease and a next wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-October frame offers Universal room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has shown that a flesh-and-blood, makeup-driven style can feel top-tier on a lean spend. Expect a splatter summer horror jolt that leans hard into worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio rolls out two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, carrying a evergreen supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is positioning as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both players and general audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build promo materials around world-building, and creature design, elements that can drive IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in historical precision and historical speech, this time set against lycan legends. Focus Features has already locked the day for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a stair-step that enhances both week-one demand and sign-up momentum in the late-window. Prime Video combines licensed content with worldwide entries and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, fright rows, and curated strips to prolong the run on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival grabs, slotting horror entries tight to release and framing as events drops with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a tiered of focused cinema runs and quick platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will count 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+ continues to evaluate horror on a selective basis. The platform has indicated interest to invest in select projects with acclaimed directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 slate with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is uncomplicated: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, managing the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday frame to widen. That positioning has paid off for director-led genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception encourages. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their membership.

Known brands versus new stories

By count, the 2026 slate leans toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit name recognition. The potential drawback, as ever, is audience fatigue. The preferred tactic is to position each entry as a new angle. Paramount is elevating relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-tinted vision from a emerging director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the team and cast is comforting enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that maintained windows did not preclude a simultaneous release test from succeeding when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror exceeded expectations in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they pivot perspective and elevate scope. 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 two-step approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through relationships and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued tilt toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds aura and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and artisan spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that withholds plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta reframe that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature work and production design, which lend themselves to expo activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that explode in larger rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is jammed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tone spread makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

February through May seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into 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 light and four-quadrant, 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 hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

End of summer through fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited disclosures that favor idea over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift card usage.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to navigate to this website challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s core. 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 machine mate grows into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: gothic-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 demanding boss struggle to survive on a desolate island as the power balance of power swivels and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to chill, founded on Cronin’s tactile craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting setup that interrogates the unease of a child’s unreliable read. Rating: pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult 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 satirical comeback that lampoons current genre trends and true-crime manias. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a fresh family tethered to old terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward true survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: pending. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: ongoing. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and elemental fear. Rating: not yet rated. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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

Why the moment is 2026

Three grounded forces frame this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shifted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, metered scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 use those gaps. 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.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing 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 value the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, soundcraft, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is recognizable IP where it plays, auteur intent 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the screams sell the seats.