Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on major streaming services

An chilling paranormal horror tale from writer / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an timeless evil when unrelated individuals become subjects in a supernatural ceremony. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing chronicle of living through and mythic evil that will revolutionize genre cinema this season. Visualized by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and claustrophobic feature follows five young adults who wake up locked in a off-grid wooden structure under the menacing grip of Kyra, a cursed figure dominated by a time-worn Old Testament spirit. Brace yourself to be seized by a narrative presentation that melds gut-punch terror with legendary tales, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a legendary foundation in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is inverted when the beings no longer appear beyond the self, but rather internally. This depicts the haunting version of the players. The result is a edge-of-seat identity crisis where the plotline becomes a soul-crushing conflict between virtue and vice.


In a wilderness-stricken landscape, five adults find themselves confined under the fiendish force and control of a haunted female figure. As the youths becomes helpless to withstand her manipulation, abandoned and preyed upon by entities beyond reason, they are made to confront their soulful dreads while the seconds harrowingly runs out toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion escalates and partnerships splinter, requiring each participant to scrutinize their personhood and the integrity of conscious will itself. The pressure amplify with every second, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that weaves together otherworldly panic with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to extract pure dread, an entity from ancient eras, operating within our weaknesses, and highlighting a being that questions who we are when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra involved tapping into something rooted in terror. She is uninformed until the control shifts, and that change is shocking because it is so intimate.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving watchers everywhere can survive this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original promo, which has racked up over 100,000 views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, extending the thrill to viewers around the world.


Be sure to catch this soul-jarring fall into madness. Experience *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to survive these haunting secrets about the psyche.


For behind-the-scenes access, director cuts, and insider scoops from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across online outlets and visit our film’s homepage.





Today’s horror sea change: the 2025 season American release plan Mixes primeval-possession lore, festival-born jolts, in parallel with returning-series thunder

Across endurance-driven terror suffused with legendary theology and onward to series comebacks paired with surgical indie voices, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated along with tactically planned year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio majors hold down the year by way of signature titles, while SVOD players pack the fall with debut heat as well as ancient terrors. In parallel, indie storytellers is drafting behind the echoes of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, distinctly in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are precise, as a result 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are assertive. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a confident swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. Under director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. launches the swan song of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re engages, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: old school creep, trauma centered writing, plus otherworld rules that chill. Here the stakes rise, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It drops in December, securing the winter cap.

Streamer Exclusives: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a close quarters body horror study anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is virtually assured for fall.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga led by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and helmed 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. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a calculated bet. No puffed out backstory. No canon weight. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Heritage Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

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

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, under Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If packaged well, it could track like 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.

Trends Worth Watching

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror swings back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The oncoming terror slate: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, alongside A packed Calendar tailored for jolts

Dek The new genre calendar stacks at the outset with a January logjam, subsequently spreads through June and July, and pushing into the year-end corridor, weaving franchise firepower, original angles, and calculated calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are relying on right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and viral-minded pushes that transform the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The genre has turned into the consistent play in annual schedules, a category that can spike when it hits and still mitigate the liability when it doesn’t. After 2023 proved to greenlighters that efficiently budgeted entries can dominate the discourse, 2024 sustained momentum with director-led heat and unexpected risers. The upswing moved into 2025, where resurrections and festival-grade titles highlighted there is a market for different modes, from ongoing IP entries to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The upshot for 2026 is a grid that looks unusually coordinated across the major shops, with strategic blocks, a harmony of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a renewed strategy on theatrical windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and SVOD.

Schedulers say the genre now serves as a swing piece on the release plan. Horror can launch on open real estate, deliver a quick sell for spots and shorts, and outperform with patrons that show up on opening previews and keep coming through the follow-up frame if the offering works. Exiting a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 cadence exhibits certainty in that playbook. The year starts with a front-loaded January schedule, then turns to spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while keeping space for a fall run that stretches into the fright window and into November. The arrangement also underscores the expanded integration of indie distributors and home platforms that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and scale up at the optimal moment.

Another broad trend is brand management across shared IP webs and storied titles. The players are not just turning out another return. They are seeking to position connection with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a reframed mood or a casting pivot that binds a next film to a heyday. At the same time, the creative teams behind the most watched originals are embracing tactile craft, special makeup and specific settings. That convergence affords 2026 a healthy mix of brand comfort and shock, which is what works overseas.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount plants an early flag with two prominent entries that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, angling it as both a relay and a DNA-forward character-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture indicates a nostalgia-forward strategy without covering again the last two entries’ sibling arc. Look for a marketing run leaning on signature symbols, intro reveals, and a promo sequence aimed at late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots 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 creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will double down on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will drive wide buzz through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format supporting quick pivots to whatever shapes pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three defined pushes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is crisp, loss-driven, and high-concept: a grieving man brings home an machine companion that mutates into a perilous partner. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to echo creepy live activations and quick hits that interweaves intimacy and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a title drop to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele titles are positioned as creative events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor gives the studio room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, practical-effects forward aesthetic can feel deluxe on a disciplined budget. Frame it as a red-band summer horror shock that leans into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio rolls out two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a proven supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is framing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both longtime followers and new audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build promo materials around setting detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive deluxe auditorium demand and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror built on historical precision and linguistic texture, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is robust.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Windowing plans in 2026 run on proven patterns. The studio’s horror films window into copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a structure that fortifies both initial urgency and subscription bumps in the after-window. Prime Video combines licensed content with worldwide buys and limited runs in theaters when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in deep cuts, using featured rows, October hubs, and curated rows to sustain interest on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays opportunistic about first-party entries and festival acquisitions, scheduling horror entries closer to launch and positioning as event drops releases with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a staged of precision theatrical plays and short jumps to platform that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has been willing to purchase select projects with acclaimed directors or star packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 lane 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 direct: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, modernized for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the autumn stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then activating the December frame to go wider. That positioning has paid off for auteur horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception prompts. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using select theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchise entries versus originals

By weight, the 2026 slate leans toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage household recognition. The risk, as ever, is brand wear. The go-to fix is to brand each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is foregrounding character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French sensibility from a buzzed-about director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and visionary-led titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the deal build is comforting enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

The last three-year set frame the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept streaming intact did not block a simultaneous release test from hitting when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror rose in premium large format. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, permits marketing to bridge entries through character web and themes and to leave creative active without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The craft conversations behind this slate indicate a continued preference for practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that foregrounds tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken imp source of Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and era-correct 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 craft journalism and craft spotlights before rolling out a teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and generates shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-aware reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster realization and design, which match well with fan-con activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that emphasize surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is crowded. Universal’s 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 somber counterpoint amid headline IP. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the range of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Late Q1 and spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late summer into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a mystery-first teaser plan and limited plot reveals that put concept first.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card use.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner escalates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

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 stumble upon a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: aura-driven 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 hard-edged boss battle to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic inverts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to dread, rooted in Cronin’s on-set craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 domestic haunting piece that toys with the horror of a child’s unreliable impressions. Rating: forthcoming. Production: completed. Positioning: major-studio and marquee-led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A parody return that riffs on of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fervors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a unlucky family lashed to older hauntings. Rating: not yet rated. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for true survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: ongoing. 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 historical diction and ancient menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026, why now

Three practical forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shifted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and tighter schedules. 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage social-ready stingers from test screenings, controlled scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will stack 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 pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, audio design, 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is IP strength where it matters, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.