Antediluvian Terror Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled horror feature, launching October 2025 across global platforms

A unnerving spiritual suspense film from storyteller / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an timeless evil when unknowns become instruments in a fiendish maze. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping portrayal of struggle and forgotten curse that will resculpt scare flicks this October. Crafted by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and shadowy story follows five unknowns who wake up isolated in a secluded cottage under the menacing will of Kyra, a young woman dominated by a two-thousand-year-old ancient fiend. Prepare to be drawn in by a big screen outing that weaves together gut-punch terror with legendary tales, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a classic theme in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reimagined when the fiends no longer come beyond the self, but rather deep within. This marks the malevolent aspect of every character. The result is a riveting internal warfare where the events becomes a relentless push-pull between purity and corruption.


In a haunting landscape, five figures find themselves stuck under the ghastly aura and inhabitation of a obscure figure. As the characters becomes incapable to oppose her control, left alone and stalked by spirits impossible to understand, they are thrust to battle their darkest emotions while the seconds brutally strikes toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread grows and relationships break, coercing each individual to question their personhood and the integrity of freedom of choice itself. The cost climb with every passing moment, delivering a nightmarish journey that harmonizes otherworldly suspense with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to extract pure dread, an entity from ancient eras, filtering through fragile psyche, and confronting a power that threatens selfhood when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra meant channeling something outside normal anguish. She is blind until the possession kicks in, and that metamorphosis is soul-crushing because it is so close.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering customers anywhere can face this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first trailer, which has collected over strong viewer count.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, exporting the fear to scare fans abroad.


Make sure to see this bone-rattling exploration of dread. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to explore these evil-rooted truths about mankind.


For sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and insider scoops directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit our spooky domain.





Today’s horror major pivot: calendar year 2025 stateside slate braids together primeval-possession lore, indie terrors, set against series shake-ups

Beginning with pressure-cooker survival tales suffused with scriptural legend and including IP renewals and focused festival visions, 2025 appears poised to be the richest together with carefully orchestrated year in years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Major studios plant stakes across the year through proven series, at the same time digital services pack the fall with fresh voices plus ancient terrors. Meanwhile, the independent cohort is surfing the tailwinds from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, though in this cycle, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are disciplined, therefore 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium dread reemerges

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal camp opens the year with a marquee bet: a refreshed Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, inside today’s landscape. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly 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 page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Guided by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline rolls out the capstone from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: throwback unease, trauma as text, plus otherworld rules that chill. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The new chapter enriches the lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It posts in December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a tight space body horror vignette fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is destined for a fall landing.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, 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 horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

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 overinflated mythology. No continuity burden. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

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

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror ascends again
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Season Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. 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 oncoming chiller calendar year ahead: brand plays, standalone ideas, and also A loaded Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek The upcoming scare calendar stacks from the jump with a January wave, then carries through summer, and far into the December corridor, fusing brand equity, inventive spins, and well-timed release strategy. The major players are relying on lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and shareable marketing that elevate these pictures into national conversation.

Where horror stands going into 2026

Horror has shown itself to be the bankable swing in studio lineups, a corner that can spike when it clicks and still mitigate the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for top brass that responsibly budgeted scare machines can galvanize the national conversation, 2024 held pace with festival-darling auteurs and surprise hits. The upswing flowed into the 2025 frame, where returns and festival-grade titles underscored there is an opening for varied styles, from legacy continuations to director-led originals that carry overseas. The upshot for 2026 is a schedule that feels more orchestrated than usual across the market, with obvious clusters, a spread of legacy names and original hooks, and a tightened emphasis on box-office windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium rental and home streaming.

Insiders argue the horror lane now works like a utility player on the rollout map. Horror can kick off on almost any weekend, yield a simple premise for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with viewers that turn out on preview nights and sustain through the next weekend if the feature fires. In the wake of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence reflects confidence in that playbook. The slate gets underway with a crowded January block, then primes spring and early summer for contrast, while clearing room for a fall corridor that runs into the fright window and into early November. The map also highlights the deeper integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can build gradually, fuel WOM, and widen at the optimal moment.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across interlocking continuities and heritage properties. The players are not just turning out another entry. They are looking to package ongoing narrative with a occasion, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a lead change that bridges a new installment to a original cycle. At the concurrently, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating physical effects work, real effects and site-specific worlds. That blend produces 2026 a solid mix of comfort and invention, which is what works overseas.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount defines the early cadence with two front-of-slate titles that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the front, setting it up as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward character piece. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture suggests a throwback-friendly strategy without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign stacked with franchise iconography, early character teases, and a rollout cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will stress. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase mainstream recognition through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick shifts to whatever shapes the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tidy, somber, and big-hook: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that becomes a dangerous lover. The date sets it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to mirror creepy live activations and quick hits that fuses attachment and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the opening teaser. 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 grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His projects are positioned as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a second wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a tactile, physical-effects centered approach can feel high-value on a tight budget. Look for a hard-R summer horror shot that maximizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio deploys two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is calling a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both fans and new audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build artifacts around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can accelerate premium format interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by historical precision and dialect, this time focused on werewolf legend. The distributor has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a structure that optimizes both week-one demand and subscriber lifts in the downstream. Prime Video will mix licensed content with global acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in catalog engagement, using timely promos, genre hubs, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about in-house releases and festival pickups, locking in horror entries closer to drop and coalescing around go-lives with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of precision releases and speedy platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues this contact form to weigh horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown a willingness to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation builds.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is tight: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the December frame to go wider. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with award possibilities. 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 plausible forecast is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception encourages. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using limited theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By proportion, 2026 skews toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to package each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a continental coloration from a rising filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the cast-creatives package is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years help explain the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not preclude a hybrid test from working when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror rose in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they alter lens and widen scale. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to sustain campaign assets without dead zones.

Technique and craft currents

The creative meetings behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued bias toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-effects 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 grain and menace rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized 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 enveloping sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta refresh that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature craft and set design, which align with fan conventions and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel definitive. Look for trailers that center pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is stacked. Universal’s 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 quiet contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reintroduces 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can connect 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 PLF.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a early fall window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that favor idea over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card use.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s algorithmic partner shifts into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 ascends 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 severe boss battle to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power tilts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to horror, grounded in Cronin’s on-set craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that mediates the fear via a child’s unsteady subjective view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral 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 comic send-up that pokes at contemporary horror memes and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further widens again, with a fresh family linked to residual nightmares. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A new start designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survivalist horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 time-true diction and raw menace. Rating: TBD. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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

Why 2026 and why now

Three workable forces frame this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shifted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, providing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will share space across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. 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.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 sleeper chase 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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, aural design, 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, Ready To Roar

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is IP strength where it matters, 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, protect the mystery, and let the gasps sell the seats.