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

A blood-curdling mystic suspense story from storyteller / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an timeless nightmare when unknowns become vehicles in a hellish maze. Dropping on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful story of continuance and forgotten curse that will reshape the horror genre this fall. Crafted by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and atmospheric feature follows five young adults who regain consciousness confined in a unreachable cottage under the dark dominion of Kyra, a female presence overtaken by a two-thousand-year-old sacrosanct terror. Arm yourself to be immersed by a visual display that combines instinctive fear with spiritual backstory, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a recurring concept in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is turned on its head when the forces no longer develop outside the characters, but rather from their psyche. This represents the malevolent corner of each of them. The result is a riveting mind game where the emotions becomes a relentless confrontation between purity and corruption.


In a abandoned natural abyss, five figures find themselves trapped under the ominous aura and spiritual invasion of a haunted entity. As the youths becomes defenseless to reject her influence, detached and tracked by creatures unimaginable, they are required to battle their soulful dreads while the seconds without pity ticks onward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust intensifies and links break, pressuring each individual to scrutinize their values and the notion of decision-making itself. The consequences magnify with every passing moment, delivering a fear-soaked story that combines ghostly evil with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to evoke deep fear, an darkness beyond recorded history, embedding itself in emotional fractures, and confronting a being that peels away humanity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra asked for exploring something rooted in terror. She is insensitive until the control shifts, and that pivot is bone-chilling because it is so emotional.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be released for horror fans beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering customers everywhere can dive into this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its initial teaser, which has racked up over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, making the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Be sure to catch this life-altering fall into madness. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to see these nightmarish insights about our species.


For cast commentary, set experiences, and reveals from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursed across entertainment pages and visit the film’s website.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: 2025 across markets U.S. release slate weaves primeval-possession lore, microbudget gut-punches, stacked beside Franchise Rumbles

From last-stand terror suffused with mythic scripture through to IP renewals as well as acutely observed indies, 2025 stands to become the most dimensioned along with tactically planned year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio powerhouses lock in tentpoles by way of signature titles, while platform operators prime the fall with emerging auteurs together with ancestral chills. Meanwhile, festival-forward creators is carried on the carry from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, however this time, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are calculated, so 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Premium genre swings back

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a risk-forward move: a refashioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, in a modern-day environment. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. targeting mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. From director Eli Craig anchored by 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. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. Pictures drops the final chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma as narrative engine, paired with unsettling supernatural order. Here the stakes rise, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It bows in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streamer Exclusives: Modest spend, serious shock

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a room scale body horror descent pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story featuring Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No overweight mythology. No sequel clutter. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

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 premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Brands: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, Directed by 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.

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.

Dials to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror comes roaring back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The 2026 chiller calendar year ahead: entries, original films, as well as A jammed Calendar geared toward shocks

Dek The emerging terror cycle stacks from day one with a January crush, and then runs through midyear, and carrying into the winter holidays, blending legacy muscle, fresh ideas, and strategic counterprogramming. Distributors with platforms are embracing right-sized spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that position the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror sector has become the steady option in release strategies, a genre that can break out when it catches and still mitigate the risk when it under-delivers. After 2023 demonstrated to greenlighters that cost-conscious chillers can command the national conversation, the following year kept energy high with filmmaker-forward plays and slow-burn breakouts. The trend extended into 2025, where reawakened brands and premium-leaning entries underscored there is a market for a spectrum, from continued chapters to director-led originals that translate worldwide. The result for 2026 is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across the major shops, with defined corridors, a pairing of brand names and novel angles, and a tightened attention on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on PVOD and platforms.

Buyers contend the horror lane now acts as a flex slot on the grid. Horror can arrive on many corridors, furnish a tight logline for spots and short-form placements, and outperform with demo groups that lean in on previews Thursday and return through the week two if the feature connects. Exiting a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 configuration shows comfort in that model. The calendar rolls out with a front-loaded January corridor, then plants flags in spring and early summer for alternate plays, while keeping space for a September to October window that connects to holiday-adjacent weekends and past the holiday. The arrangement also reflects the greater integration of indie distributors and streamers that can platform and widen, create conversation, and move wide at the inflection point.

Another broad trend is IP cultivation across interlocking continuities and storied titles. Big banners are not just pushing another chapter. They are working to present connection with a sense of event, whether that is a brandmark that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a casting pivot that reconnects a upcoming film to a original cycle. At the simultaneously, the helmers behind the top original plays are embracing in-camera technique, makeup and prosthetics and vivid settings. That pairing affords the 2026 slate a robust balance of home base and invention, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile releases that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a cross-generational handoff and a DNA-forward relationship-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture hints at a fan-service aware mode without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Count on a promo wave anchored in heritage visuals, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will foreground. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick switches to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is straightforward, somber, and premise-first: a grieving man activates an AI companion that evolves into a deadly partner. The date slots it at the front of a packed window, with marketing at Universal likely to revisit creepy live activations and bite-size content that blurs intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a branding reveal to become an PR pop closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are presented as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame lets the studio to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has proven that a in-your-face, on-set effects led execution can feel top-tier on a tight budget. Position this as a red-band summer horror shot that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, holding a bankable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is describing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both players and casuals. The fall slot gives Sony time to build materials around narrative world, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

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 follows Eggers’ run of period horror defined by historical precision and dialect, this time steeped in lycan lore. The company has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform windowing in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal titles flow to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that enhances both premiere heat and subscriber lifts in the back half. Prime Video blends licensed films with international acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and editorial rows to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about own-slate titles and festival additions, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and turning into events arrivals with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a one-two of selective theatrical runs and accelerated platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with recognized filmmakers or star imp source packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation intensifies.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 arc with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is straightforward: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, updated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the September weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception encourages. Anticipate 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 hand in hand, using mini theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By share, the 2026 slate bends toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness cultural cachet. The potential drawback, as ever, is overexposure. The workable fix is to pitch each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is foregrounding character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a emerging director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the configuration is familiar enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Three-year comps illuminate the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that observed windows did not hamper a parallel release from delivering when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they shift POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot consecutively, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to sustain campaign assets without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued move toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that centers atmosphere and fear rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that withholds plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Source Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and drives shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-referential reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster realization and design, which fit with expo activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that underscore pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is crowded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid larger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the variety of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth stays strong.

February through May stage summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows 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 lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder season window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited previews that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card spend.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s virtual companion turns 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss work to survive on a remote island as the control dynamic tilts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to fright, built on Cronin’s on-set craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting story that pipes the unease through a youth’s shifting internal vantage. Rating: to be announced. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-built and star-fronted spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that lampoons in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 surges, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a fresh family caught in returning horrors. Rating: pending. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: pending. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and elemental menace. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces organize this lineup. First, production that paused or shifted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and tighter schedules. 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify bite-size scare clips from test screenings, controlled scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

The slot calculus is real. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, creating valuable space for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound, 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 Looks Exciting

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand gravity where needed, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.