Age-old Evil returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, bowing Oct 2025 on leading streamers

A spine-tingling ghostly fright fest from scriptwriter / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an primordial fear when unrelated individuals become puppets in a satanic conflict. Going live on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching episode of living through and mythic evil that will remodel genre cinema this scare season. Created by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and shadowy film follows five young adults who are stirred stuck in a unreachable structure under the hostile influence of Kyra, a young woman controlled by a time-worn religious nightmare. Arm yourself to be shaken by a immersive presentation that merges soul-chilling terror with mythic lore, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a time-honored pillar in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is flipped when the fiends no longer descend from elsewhere, but rather internally. This depicts the haunting facet of the players. The result is a enthralling mental war where the narrative becomes a intense struggle between virtue and vice.


In a forsaken landscape, five teens find themselves imprisoned under the possessive rule and haunting of a unknown spirit. As the youths becomes unable to oppose her power, left alone and chased by entities unfathomable, they are compelled to stand before their deepest fears while the seconds relentlessly draws closer toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety deepens and teams break, pushing each protagonist to scrutinize their identity and the idea of liberty itself. The consequences amplify with every heartbeat, delivering a fear-soaked story that marries supernatural terror with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to draw upon instinctual horror, an evil before modern man, manifesting in human fragility, and questioning a spirit that challenges autonomy when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra was centered on something outside normal anguish. She is innocent until the demon emerges, and that conversion is soul-crushing because it is so emotional.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be available for horror fans beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—offering audiences worldwide can watch this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first trailer, which has garnered over massive response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, bringing the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Witness this unforgettable trip into the unknown. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to uncover these evil-rooted truths about existence.


For sneak peeks, extra content, and insider scoops from the story's source, follow @YACFilm across online outlets and visit the film’s website.





Today’s horror sea change: 2025 American release plan Mixes Mythic Possession, art-house nightmares, in parallel with Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from survivor-centric dread infused with scriptural legend and stretching into series comebacks in concert with incisive indie visions, 2025 is shaping up as the genre’s most multifaceted and blueprinted year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio powerhouses stabilize the year with franchise anchors, while SVOD players pack the fall with new voices paired with archetypal fear. Across the art-house lane, the art-house flank is propelled by the afterglow from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the other windows are mapped with care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are exacting, therefore 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium genre swings back

The top end is active. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s distribution arm sets the tone with a marquee bet: a refashioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. dated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. From director Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. Pictures sets loose the finale inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: period tinged dread, trauma driven plotting, plus otherworld rules that chill. Here the stakes rise, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The return delves further into myth, grows the animatronic horror lineup, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It bows in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a tight space body horror vignette pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with 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.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. 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 story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No swollen lore. No franchise baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. 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 offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Series Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

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

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

What to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forward View: Fall stack and winter swing card

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The coming 2026 terror cycle: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, And A hectic Calendar calibrated for goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new genre cycle stacks from the jump with a January pile-up, thereafter stretches through June and July, and carrying into the festive period, weaving franchise firepower, inventive spins, and calculated counterweight. The big buyers and platforms are relying on right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and short-form initiatives that pivot these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the consistent lever in studio slates, a pillar that can lift when it breaks through and still insulate the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 reconfirmed for greenlighters that low-to-mid budget pictures can command cultural conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with visionary-driven titles and stealth successes. The trend flowed into 2025, where revived properties and elevated films made clear there is room for different modes, from returning installments to director-led originals that play globally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a run that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with mapped-out bands, a pairing of recognizable IP and new packages, and a sharpened stance on exhibition windows that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and streaming.

Executives say the category now acts as a swing piece on the schedule. The genre can launch on almost any weekend, generate a tight logline for previews and vertical videos, and exceed norms with moviegoers that lean in on advance nights and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the movie hits. After a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 plan underscores belief in that logic. The slate opens with a thick January window, then taps spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while carving room for a October build that runs into the fright window and beyond. The program also reflects the tightening integration of indie arms and streamers that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and move wide at the inflection point.

A companion trend is brand strategy across brand ecosystems and long-running brands. The players are not just releasing another installment. They are working to present ongoing narrative with a specialness, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting choice that reconnects a next entry to a classic era. At the alongside this, the filmmakers behind the high-profile originals are doubling down on real-world builds, in-camera effects and site-specific worlds. That interplay hands 2026 a lively combination of known notes and invention, which is the formula for international play.

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

Paramount sets the tone early with two high-profile plays that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the focus, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-forward chapter. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture telegraphs a nostalgia-forward treatment without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run built on brand visuals, intro reveals, and a tiered teaser plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reignites 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 as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will generate mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format supporting quick shifts to whatever defines the discourse that spring.

Universal has three unique lanes. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is crisp, grief-rooted, and concept-forward: a grieving man purchases an machine companion that evolves into a deadly partner. The date sets it at the front of a heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to renew off-kilter promo beats and bite-size content that blurs attachment and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a proper title to become an earned moment closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The late-month date gives the studio 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has proven that a visceral, practical-effects forward approach can feel prestige on a middle budget. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror blast that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio lines up two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, carrying a bankable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is billing as a reimagined 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 directive to serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build materials around setting detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by obsessive craft and dialect, this time focused on werewolf legend. The specialty arm has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s horror titles move to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that amplifies both week-one demand and sign-up momentum in the late-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, seasonal hubs, and collection rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays opportunistic about in-house releases and festival pickups, timing horror entries near their drops and elevating as drops drops with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a two-step of tailored theatrical exposure and short jumps to platform that translates talk to trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to secure select projects with established auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is mapping 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 clean: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, modernized for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday dates to open out. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-driven genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception merits. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using small theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their user base.

Brands and originals

By weight, 2026 tilts in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on cultural cachet. The risk, as ever, is audience fatigue. The workable fix is to position each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is underscoring character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the package is recognizable enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Three-year comps contextualize the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that respected streaming windows did not block a day-date try from succeeding when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror punched above its weight in premium large format. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they pivot perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, lets marketing to bridge entries through protagonists and motifs and to leave creative active without long gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 entries foreshadow a continued preference for in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that spotlights mood and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for textured sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a first look that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and drives shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta reframe that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature execution and sets, which match well with fan conventions and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel necessary. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that work in PLF.

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 heftier brand moves. The month buttons 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 thick, but the mix of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Late Q1 and spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a opaque tease strategy and limited asset reveals that put concept first.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can play the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s intelligent companion turns into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 rises 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss battle to survive on a cut-off island as the power dynamic inverts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, built on Cronin’s material craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting setup that routes the horror through a child’s unsteady internal vantage. Rating: TBA. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and headline-actor led supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A satirical comeback that pokes at present-day genre chatter and true-crime buzz. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. 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: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a fresh family snared by ancient dread. Rating: undetermined. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-core horror over action fireworks. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. 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: to be announced. Production: in progress. 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 bone-deep menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three workable forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that paused or re-sequenced in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter 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 beaten straight-to-streaming landings. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate shareable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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-hit hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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 have a peek at these guys 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 rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

A Promising 2026

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is name recognition where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shudders sell the seats.