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

This haunting otherworldly suspense story from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an age-old force when unrelated individuals become tokens in a cursed struggle. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing chronicle of continuance and primordial malevolence that will revolutionize genre cinema this cool-weather season. Helmed by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and moody suspense flick follows five lost souls who suddenly rise caught in a cut-off hideaway under the aggressive will of Kyra, a female presence inhabited by a millennia-old biblical force. Ready yourself to be captivated by a screen-based outing that melds gut-punch terror with mystical narratives, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a mainstay concept in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is subverted when the fiends no longer appear outside the characters, but rather within themselves. This suggests the darkest side of the victims. The result is a edge-of-seat inner struggle where the emotions becomes a perpetual conflict between moral forces.


In a barren wild, five figures find themselves stuck under the sinister influence and spiritual invasion of a uncanny female figure. As the team becomes unresisting to oppose her command, disconnected and targeted by spirits unfathomable, they are cornered to endure their inner horrors while the countdown unforgivingly runs out toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust escalates and bonds shatter, forcing each character to reconsider their values and the foundation of free will itself. The pressure mount with every breath, delivering a fear-soaked story that merges otherworldly panic with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to explore pure dread, an presence rooted in antiquity, influencing soul-level flaws, and questioning a force that peels away humanity when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant channeling something deeper than fear. She is ignorant until the demon emerges, and that conversion is soul-crushing because it is so internal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing households globally can dive into this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its release of trailer #1, which has racked up over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, exporting the fear to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this gripping descent into darkness. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to uncover these spiritual awakenings about the mind.


For teasers, set experiences, and updates directly from production, follow @YACMovie across social media and visit the official digital haunt.





American horror’s watershed moment: 2025 across markets U.S. calendar weaves primeval-possession lore, festival-born jolts, stacked beside franchise surges

Moving from life-or-death fear rooted in legendary theology and including returning series paired with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is coalescing into the most variegated and carefully orchestrated year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios set cornerstones with familiar IP, in parallel SVOD players front-load the fall with new perspectives set against mythic dread. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is riding the kinetic energy from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, and now, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are methodical, so 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige terror resurfaces

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal banner starts the year with an audacious swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a clear present-tense world. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. targeting mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Guided by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. unveils the final movement from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson is back, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, and eerie supernatural logic. The ante is higher this round, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The continuation widens the legend, thickens the animatronic pantheon, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It drops in December, holding the cold season’s end.

SVOD Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn featuring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No bloated mythology. No canon weight. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, under Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. 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.

Key Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror reemerges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Big screen is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forward View: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The 2026 spook slate: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, and also A hectic Calendar geared toward shocks

Dek: The arriving horror slate lines up from day one with a January pile-up, subsequently runs through the summer months, and continuing into the holiday frame, weaving franchise firepower, original angles, and calculated counterplay. The major players are focusing on cost discipline, box-office-first windows, and platform-native promos that transform these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has solidified as the consistent play in programming grids, a genre that can break out when it catches and still protect the liability when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year demonstrated to buyers that cost-conscious chillers can galvanize the national conversation, the following year kept the drumbeat going with signature-voice projects and surprise hits. The energy carried into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and arthouse crossovers confirmed there is capacity for different modes, from series extensions to one-and-done originals that travel well. The sum for 2026 is a roster that looks unusually coordinated across the market, with strategic blocks, a pairing of brand names and new packages, and a refocused focus on box-office windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital and home streaming.

Executives say the space now works like a flex slot on the grid. The genre can premiere on numerous frames, generate a grabby hook for teasers and reels, and exceed norms with demo groups that line up on previews Thursday and stick through the second frame if the movie lands. Post a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 pattern signals certainty in that engine. The slate starts with a busy January block, then taps spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a autumn stretch that flows toward the Halloween frame and past the holiday. The calendar also features the deeper integration of specialized labels and platforms that can grow from platform, stoke social talk, and grow at the timely point.

An added macro current is brand curation across shared universes and classic IP. Distribution groups are not just mounting another continuation. They are shaping as story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a graphic identity that conveys a re-angled tone or a talent selection that bridges a new entry to a original cycle. At the alongside this, the directors behind the most watched originals are returning to material texture, makeup and prosthetics and location-forward worlds. That fusion gives 2026 a robust balance of trust and shock, which is why the genre exports well.

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

Paramount leads early with two spotlight titles that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a legacy handover and a classic-mode character-forward chapter. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a roots-evoking mode without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push rooted in classic imagery, character previews, and a two-beat trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format allowing quick adjustments to whatever tops the conversation that spring.

Universal has three separate bets. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is crisp, soulful, and premise-first: a grieving man implements an synthetic partner that grows into a killer companion. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with the marketing arm likely to iterate on creepy live activations and short-cut promos that threads romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a proper title to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. The filmmaker’s films are treated as auteur events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-month date creates space for Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has proven that a tactile, physical-effects centered mix can feel top-tier on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror blast that emphasizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio books two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a trusty supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is calling a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both fans and newcomers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build assets around canon, and practical creature work, elements that can amplify deluxe auditorium demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by minute detail and period speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is warm.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform strategies for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s slate shift to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a pacing that fortifies both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video continues to mix licensed titles with worldwide buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, genre hubs, and featured rows to sustain interest on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays nimble about in-house releases and festival wins, scheduling horror entries near launch and positioning as event drops premieres with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a hybrid of targeted theatrical exposure and short jumps to platform that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a discrete basis. The platform has been willing to acquire select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for sustained usage when the genre conversation spikes.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 track with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is simple: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, retooled for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday slot to increase reach. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-first horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Look for 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 jointly, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subs.

Franchise entries versus originals

By skew, 2026 tips toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on franchise value. The risk, as ever, is brand erosion. The pragmatic answer is to sell each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is underscoring character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-inflected take from a emerging director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and visionary-led titles keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the configuration is known enough to build pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Recent-year comps help explain the logic. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept streaming intact did not hamper a hybrid test from hitting when the brand was potent. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in premium formats. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, provides the means for marketing to relate entries through character and theme and to keep materials circulating without extended gaps.

Technique and craft currents

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the upcoming entries hint at a continued lean toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that underscores grain and menace rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft spotlights before rolling out a tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that elevate precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that explode in larger rooms.

Annual flow

January is full. 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 foggy reset amid bigger brand plays. The month finishes 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 formidable, but the palette of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late Q1 and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now enables 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Shoulder season into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a transitional slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited asset reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and card redemption.

Project briefs

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 re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s synthetic partner turns into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 tough boss claw to survive on a cut-off island as the pecking order swivels and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, have a peek at this web-site April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to nightmare, driven by Cronin’s practical effects and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting story that threads the dread through a child’s uneven subjective view. Rating: forthcoming. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed and star-fronted haunting thriller.

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 genre lampoon that satirizes current genre trends and true crime fixations. Rating: TBA. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new household linked to old terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-driven horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing. 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 era-faithful speech and primal menace. Rating: TBD. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. 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: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three operational forces structure this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or reshuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on shareable moments from test screenings, managed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

The slot calculus is real. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 chase continues in Q1, where lean-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 harvest those lanes. 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, 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 cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, 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 scale over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sound field, 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.

2026 Looks Exciting

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is recognizable IP where it plays, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, guard the secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.