Antediluvian Terror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising feature, bowing Oct 2025 on leading streamers

A terrifying paranormal fear-driven tale from narrative craftsman / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an timeless dread when passersby become pawns in a fiendish struggle. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish narrative of continuance and age-old darkness that will reimagine fear-driven cinema this harvest season. Produced by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and moody screenplay follows five individuals who snap to locked in a wooded lodge under the dark grip of Kyra, a tormented girl claimed by a time-worn ancient fiend. Be prepared to be hooked by a visual adventure that merges raw fear with ancient myths, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a long-standing tradition in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is redefined when the dark entities no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather from their core. This illustrates the haunting layer of each of them. The result is a gripping internal warfare where the tension becomes a perpetual push-pull between light and darkness.


In a remote backcountry, five youths find themselves trapped under the possessive force and inhabitation of a unknown woman. As the companions becomes unable to reject her grasp, severed and chased by powers indescribable, they are thrust to face their greatest panics while the countdown relentlessly counts down toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion surges and associations shatter, prompting each soul to evaluate their values and the concept of freedom of choice itself. The pressure climb with every fleeting time, delivering a frightening tale that intertwines otherworldly panic with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to extract instinctual horror, an malevolence older than civilization itself, embedding itself in human fragility, and highlighting a will that questions who we are when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra meant evoking something beyond human emotion. She is blind until the invasion happens, and that shift is soul-crushing because it is so internal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that horror lovers across the world can engage with this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its original clip, which has gathered over a viral response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, presenting the nightmare to scare fans abroad.


Witness this haunted ride through nightmares. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to acknowledge these dark realities about human nature.


For behind-the-scenes access, on-set glimpses, and reveals from behind the lens, follow @YACFilm across your favorite networks and visit our film’s homepage.





Current horror’s sea change: 2025 U.S. lineup interlaces Mythic Possession, underground frights, alongside Franchise Rumbles

Spanning life-or-death fear saturated with biblical myth through to series comebacks in concert with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is coalescing into the most variegated plus calculated campaign year since the mid-2010s.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. major banners stabilize the year with familiar IP, in parallel streamers front-load the fall with new voices paired with mythic dread. On another front, the artisan tier is riding the carry of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, yet in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are surgical, so 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s pipeline begins the calendar with a bold swing: a modernized Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a crisp modern milieu. From director Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. set for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. Pictures unveils the final movement from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. While the template is known, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson returns, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: old school creep, trauma as theme, and eerie supernatural logic. This run ups the stakes, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It arrives in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Digital Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a body horror duet led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to 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.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. 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.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a clever angle. No heavy handed lore. No continuity burden. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. 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 still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Brands: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors 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 title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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 Worth Watching

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror swings back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

The Road Ahead: 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 including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The upcoming genre season: next chapters, new stories, and also A brimming Calendar engineered for jolts

Dek The fresh genre season packs from day one with a January cluster, from there extends through midyear, and running into the December corridor, blending name recognition, novel approaches, and well-timed counterplay. Studios and platforms are betting on right-sized spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and buzz-forward plans that pivot these films into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror marketplace has become the most reliable lever in release strategies, a genre that can spike when it connects and still safeguard the risk when it fails to connect. After 2023 re-taught executives that mid-range shockers can dominate mainstream conversation, the following year continued the surge with high-profile filmmaker pieces and surprise hits. The carry carried into 2025, where returns and arthouse crossovers made clear there is space for many shades, from series extensions to non-IP projects that translate worldwide. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a programming that shows rare alignment across the industry, with planned clusters, a equilibrium of household franchises and untested plays, and a re-energized eye on release windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium on-demand and OTT platforms.

Planners observe the horror lane now serves as a fill-in ace on the slate. The genre can bow on almost any weekend, create a simple premise for ad units and social clips, and outperform with patrons that show up on opening previews and keep coming through the next weekend if the offering lands. Post a work stoppage lag, the 2026 setup telegraphs trust in that setup. The slate begins with a stacked January window, then targets spring into early summer for audience offsets, while saving space for a autumn stretch that extends to the Halloween corridor and beyond. The calendar also shows the continuing integration of specialty distributors and streamers that can platform a title, ignite recommendations, and roll out at the precise moment.

A companion trend is legacy care across ongoing universes and classic IP. The companies are not just releasing another entry. They are aiming to frame lore continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a brandmark that announces a new vibe or a casting pivot that links a next film to a early run. At the alongside this, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are leaning into tactile craft, practical gags and concrete locations. That pairing provides the 2026 slate a smart balance of home base and unexpected turns, which is the formula for international play.

What the navigate here big players are lining up

Paramount marks the early tempo with two prominent plays that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the lead, presenting it as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-first story. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the story approach indicates a classic-referencing campaign without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Expect a marketing push rooted in classic imagery, character previews, and a promo sequence landing toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will drive large awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format fitting quick pivots to whatever leads trend lines that spring.

Universal has three discrete strategies. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is simple, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man activates an intelligent companion that shifts into a lethal partner. The date places it at the front of a thick month, with the marketing arm likely to recreate off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that threads romance and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a final title to become an earned moment closer to the initial tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His entries are set up as event films, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later trailer push that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a gritty, practical-first approach can feel high-value on a disciplined budget. Expect a blood-and-grime summer horror shot that maximizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio places two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a trusty supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has reshuffled 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 returns in what the studio is marketing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both diehards and first-timers. The fall slot allows Sony to build artifacts around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can stoke format premiums and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors 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 defined by textural authenticity and dialect, this time steeped in lycan lore. The distributor has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform windowing in 2026 run on well-known grooves. The studio’s horror films move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a structure that amplifies both FOMO and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix third-party pickups with global acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library pulls, using featured rows, October hubs, and curated strips to increase tail value on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about first-party entries and festival snaps, dating horror entries closer to drop and coalescing around premieres with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a one-two of targeted theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown a willingness to board select projects with accomplished filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for retention when the genre conversation builds.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track 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 proposition is clear: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has delivered for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception supports. Expect 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 hand in hand, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchises versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The risk, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to frame each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is centering character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-accented approach from a ascendant talent. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the deal build is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Recent-year comps clarify the approach. In 2023, a exclusive window model that maintained windows did not preclude a day-date try from working when the brand was big. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror punched above its weight in premium screens. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they rotate perspective and increase ambition. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through protagonists and motifs and to hold creative in the market without extended gaps.

How the films are being made

The filmmaking conversations behind these films foreshadow a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that underscores texture and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a initial teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta refresh that centers an original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature work and production design, which play well in 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 sudden silences that work in PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is busy. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid larger brand plays. The month winds down 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 real, but the range of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Late winter and spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Shoulder season into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a early fall window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited plot reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and card redemption.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s synthetic partner mutates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete 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 hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 difficult boss scramble to survive on a remote island as the hierarchy swivels and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to dread, based on Cronin’s material craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting premise that threads the dread through a kid’s uncertain subjective view. Rating: TBD. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that targets present-day genre chatter and true crime fixations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 breaks out, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a different family lashed to ancient dread. Rating: TBD. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-driven horror over action spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. Production: ongoing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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

Why this year, why now

Three execution-level forces frame this lineup. First, production that eased or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, select scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, freeing space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will line up across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient placements, 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 visual texture, soundscape, and visuals 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 rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is name recognition where it counts, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.