Age-old Evil emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

One terrifying paranormal fright fest from literary architect / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an primeval malevolence when unfamiliar people become pawns in a malevolent ordeal. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing journey of endurance and archaic horror that will reconstruct the fear genre this fall. Realized by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and tone-heavy feature follows five individuals who find themselves trapped in a hidden dwelling under the malignant power of Kyra, a troubled woman controlled by a prehistoric religious nightmare. Anticipate to be shaken by a visual display that merges instinctive fear with biblical origins, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a time-honored foundation in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reimagined when the entities no longer come outside the characters, but rather from their core. This portrays the most primal side of the protagonists. The result is a enthralling spiritual tug-of-war where the tension becomes a brutal tug-of-war between virtue and vice.


In a isolated woodland, five young people find themselves cornered under the unholy force and spiritual invasion of a unidentified figure. As the team becomes submissive to fight her power, abandoned and tormented by creatures inconceivable, they are confronted to confront their soulful dreads while the moments relentlessly ticks toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread deepens and teams erode, compelling each individual to question their essence and the integrity of free will itself. The hazard grow with every fleeting time, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that harmonizes spiritual fright with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to uncover instinctual horror, an threat born of forgotten ages, filtering through emotional fractures, and questioning a presence that tests the soul when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra meant evoking something rooted in terror. She is ignorant until the haunting manifests, and that metamorphosis is shocking because it is so unshielded.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audience access beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing customers across the world can experience this demonic journey.


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 follow up to its release of trailer #1, which has pulled in over massive response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, exporting the fear to global fright lovers.


Do not miss this visceral descent into hell. Experience *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to experience these terrifying truths about the human condition.


For teasers, making-of footage, and reveals from inside the story, follow @YACFilm across media channels and visit the official movie site.





Current horror’s Turning Point: 2025 across markets U.S. calendar Mixes old-world possession, festival-born jolts, plus tentpole growls

Moving from survivor-centric dread saturated with mythic scripture and stretching into returning series alongside acutely observed indies, 2025 is shaping up as the richest combined with strategic year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. major banners are anchoring the year by way of signature titles, as SVOD players load up the fall with fresh voices set against scriptural shivers. At the same time, the art-house flank is riding the echoes from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the other windows are mapped with care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are disciplined, therefore 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium genre swings back

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s slate sets the tone with a confident swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a sharp contemporary setting. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. dated for 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 adaptation reframed as lean dread. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer wanes, the WB camp releases the last chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

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: nostalgic menace, trauma as theme, along with eerie supernatural rules. This time, the stakes are raised, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, courting teens and the thirty something base. It arrives in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Firsts: Economy, maximum dread

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a two hander body horror spiral fronted by Alison Brie and 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 toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Then there is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No canon weight. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Lines: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, helmed 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.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trends to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror resurges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

What’s Next: Autumn density and winter pivot

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The oncoming genre season: Sequels, standalone ideas, as well as A stacked Calendar aimed at shocks

Dek: The arriving genre cycle loads right away with a January crush, thereafter runs through midyear, and well into the year-end corridor, blending series momentum, untold stories, and strategic alternatives. The big buyers and platforms are focusing on tight budgets, theater-first strategies, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate genre titles into national conversation.

How the genre looks for 2026

The field has grown into the bankable option in annual schedules, a corner that can spike when it catches and still safeguard the losses when it misses. After 2023 proved to strategy teams that modestly budgeted shockers can command mainstream conversation, the following year kept energy high with high-profile filmmaker pieces and word-of-mouth wins. The upswing pushed into 2025, where legacy revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets highlighted there is a market for a spectrum, from returning installments to non-IP projects that resonate abroad. The takeaway for 2026 is a schedule that is strikingly coherent across studios, with intentional bunching, a mix of marquee IP and new packages, and a revived strategy on box-office windows that power the aftermarket on premium home window and subscription services.

Insiders argue the space now works like a wildcard on the schedule. Horror can premiere on virtually any date, furnish a easy sell for previews and social clips, and overperform with crowds that come out on Thursday previews and keep coming through the second weekend if the release hits. Exiting a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 rhythm demonstrates assurance in that engine. The year commences with a heavy January window, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while holding room for a September to October window that reaches into the Halloween corridor and into the next week. The calendar also underscores the continuing integration of specialty distributors and OTT outlets that can platform and widen, build word of mouth, and move wide at the strategic time.

An added macro current is brand curation across shared universes and heritage properties. The players are not just rolling another continuation. They are seeking to position lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a brandmark that flags a fresh attitude or a casting choice that threads a new entry to a initial period. At the meanwhile, the visionaries behind the most anticipated originals are prioritizing tactile craft, practical gags and place-driven backdrops. That combination offers the 2026 slate a robust balance of known notes and surprise, which is why the genre exports well.

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

Paramount fires first with two spotlight plays that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the core, setting it up as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward character-centered film. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the directional approach announces a memory-charged strategy without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run built on legacy iconography, first-look character reveals, and a tiered teaser plan hitting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will emphasize. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will go after large awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick pivots to whatever rules the social talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct entries. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, tragic, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an digital partner that turns into a dangerous lover. The date slots it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate eerie street stunts and short-cut promos that interweaves affection and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a public title to become an headline beat closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele titles are branded as director events, with a minimalist tease and a second wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date opens a lane to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on 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 directs, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a raw, physical-effects centered aesthetic can feel prestige on a middle budget. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror shot that spotlights global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, holding a evergreen supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is billing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both franchise faithful and general audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign creative around lore, and monster design, elements that can boost PLF interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on minute detail and period language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform tactics for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a tiered path that maximizes both initial urgency and viewer acquisition in the tail. Prime Video blends outside acquisitions with world buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in back-catalog play, using editorial spots, genre hubs, and staff picks to lengthen the tail on overall cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival deals, dating horror entries near their drops and eventizing launches with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a paired of precision releases and quick platforming that translates talk to trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown appetite to board select projects with award winners or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 slate with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is simple: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, retooled for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a theatrical-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late-season weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas window to increase reach. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-driven genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a brace 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 runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using mini theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Series vs standalone

By skew, the 2026 slate tips toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit franchise value. The concern, as ever, is viewer burnout. The practical approach is to package each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is centering character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a continental coloration from a emerging director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and imp source talent-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the configuration is anchored enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and first-night audiences.

Past-three-year patterns frame the model. In 2023, a theater-first model that held distribution windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from delivering when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror hit big in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reframe POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot in tandem, lets marketing to link the films through character web and themes and to hold creative in the market without long breaks.

Craft and creative trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 slate forecast a continued tilt toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that spotlights grain and menace rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in feature stories and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that keeps plot minimal, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta reframe that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature execution and sets, which fit with fan-con activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that highlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that sing on PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel More about the author McAdams. The competition here is real, but the tonal variety carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Late winter and spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

End of summer through fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder season window that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited advance reveals that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. movies Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s artificial companion shifts into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 unyielding boss try to survive on a rugged island as the power balance inverts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to nightmare, anchored by Cronin’s material craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting setup that mediates the fear via a child’s uneven inner lens. Rating: TBD. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-supported and toplined haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that skewers of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: TBA. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 bursts, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family lashed to residual nightmares. Rating: undetermined. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on true survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: to be announced. Production: active. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and primordial menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three practical forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or reshuffled in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, curated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can command a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will cluster across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where value-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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first unexpected 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, 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 reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand gravity where needed, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.