Mythic Dread Reawakens within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled supernatural thriller, rolling out October 2025 across global platforms

An hair-raising spiritual thriller from author / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an mythic malevolence when unknowns become victims in a supernatural maze. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving story of endurance and ancient evil that will revamp genre cinema this Halloween season. Directed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and tone-heavy film follows five lost souls who are stirred sealed in a unreachable shelter under the ominous sway of Kyra, a possessed female possessed by a timeless religious nightmare. Be warned to be drawn in by a motion picture adventure that melds instinctive fear with mythic lore, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a legendary concept in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is flipped when the presences no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather within themselves. This portrays the shadowy part of each of them. The result is a intense internal warfare where the plotline becomes a intense face-off between virtue and vice.


In a abandoned landscape, five young people find themselves caught under the fiendish sway and spiritual invasion of a haunted apparition. As the survivors becomes helpless to reject her curse, isolated and followed by presences impossible to understand, they are cornered to endure their soulful dreads while the hours ruthlessly edges forward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread amplifies and connections implode, compelling each cast member to reflect on their existence and the foundation of free will itself. The cost rise with every minute, delivering a chilling narrative that fuses occult fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to dive into elemental fright, an curse that existed before mankind, filtering through fragile psyche, and exposing a darkness that peels away humanity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra required summoning something darker than pain. She is oblivious until the possession kicks in, and that turn is gut-wrenching because it is so personal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving customers globally can get immersed in this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first preview, which has racked up over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, delivering the story to viewers around the world.


Make sure to see this bone-rattling spiral into evil. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to see these nightmarish insights about the soul.


For cast commentary, production insights, and news from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Instagram and Twitter and visit our spooky domain.





Current horror’s watershed moment: the year 2025 domestic schedule melds biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, plus series shake-ups

From endurance-driven terror steeped in biblical myth as well as franchise returns as well as cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated combined with deliberate year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. top-tier distributors lay down anchors with franchise anchors, at the same time digital services load up the fall with emerging auteurs as well as primordial unease. Meanwhile, the independent cohort is fueled by the echoes of 2024’s record festival wave. As Halloween stays the prime week, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, notably this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are disciplined, so 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal camp fires the first shot with a confident swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. landing in mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer fades, the WB camp rolls out the capstone from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re engages, and the tone that worked before is intact: retrograde shiver, trauma foregrounded, and eerie supernatural logic. This time, the stakes are raised, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, broadens the animatronic terror cast, reaching teens and game grownups. It lands in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a room scale body horror descent led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Penned and steered 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 an astute call. No swollen lore. No brand fatigue. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

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, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy IP: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

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

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

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.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

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. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. 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. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The oncoming fright year to come: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, in tandem with A stacked Calendar aimed at jolts

Dek: The current genre calendar lines up from the jump with a January wave, and then carries through the mid-year, and well into the winter holidays, combining franchise firepower, untold stories, and tactical counterprogramming. The big buyers and platforms are betting on mid-range economics, theatrical-first rollouts, and shareable marketing that position genre releases into national conversation.

How the genre looks for 2026

The horror sector has become the most reliable release in release strategies, a corner that can grow when it performs and still insulate the liability when it falls short. After 2023 reassured greenlighters that responsibly budgeted entries can command cultural conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with director-led heat and stealth successes. The run moved into 2025, where reawakened brands and arthouse crossovers signaled there is space for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to one-and-done originals that export nicely. The result for 2026 is a schedule that shows rare alignment across the major shops, with strategic blocks, a combination of brand names and untested plays, and a sharpened strategy on exhibition windows that drive downstream revenue on PVOD and subscription services.

Marketers add the genre now functions as a fill-in ace on the calendar. The genre can launch on almost any weekend, create a tight logline for trailers and platform-native cuts, and overperform with ticket buyers that line up on Thursday nights and keep coming through the next pass if the film pays off. Exiting a work stoppage lag, the 2026 pattern exhibits conviction in that logic. The slate begins with a heavy January window, then exploits spring through early summer for counterweight, while holding room for a fall cadence that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and into post-Halloween. The gridline also highlights the continuing integration of specialized labels and platforms that can launch in limited release, grow buzz, and widen at the right moment.

A notable top-line trend is legacy care across interlocking continuities and established properties. The companies are not just releasing another continuation. They are shaping as story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a re-angled tone or a ensemble decision that reconnects a new installment to a vintage era. At the in tandem, the directors behind the high-profile originals are leaning into in-camera technique, practical effects and place-driven backdrops. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a healthy mix of assurance and freshness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount establishes early momentum with two front-of-slate projects that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a origin-leaning character-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach hints at a classic-referencing angle without recycling the last two entries’ family thread. Count on a promo wave centered on recognizable motifs, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will emphasize. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will generate wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick shifts to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific bets. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is tidy, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man adopts an synthetic partner that turns into a deadly partner. The date sets it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate uncanny live moments and quick hits that melds longing and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title drop to become an fan moment closer to the teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele projects are positioned as signature events, with a concept-forward tease and a second trailer wave that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to lead 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has long shown that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy style can feel cinematic on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror rush that pushes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio deploys two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, holding a steady supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is marketing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both longtime followers and newcomers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign creative around environmental design, and creature builds, elements that can accelerate PLF interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in rigorous craft and period language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus Features has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a structure that enhances both opening-weekend urgency and sub growth in the tail. Prime Video interleaves third-party pickups with cross-border buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog engagement, using curated hubs, holiday hubs, and collection rows to stretch the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival snaps, slotting horror entries on shorter click site runways and turning into events drops with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a tiered of limited theatrical footprints and fast windowing that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 runway 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 tight: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, elevated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the year-end corridor to open out. That positioning has paid off for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception encourages. Look for 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 jointly, using targeted theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchise entries versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate favors the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The challenge, as ever, is staleness. The standing approach is to brand each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is leading with character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and talent-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is comforting enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years help explain the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive window model that held distribution windows did not obstruct a same-day experiment from winning when the brand was potent. In 2024, precision craft horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, lets marketing to bridge entries through character web and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind this slate hint at a continued preference for practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that centers tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft features before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature and environment design, which play well in convention floor stunts and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that spotlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the palette of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late Q1 and spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now enables 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can win 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.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited teasers that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and card redemption.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: this content Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s machine mate evolves into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 prickly boss struggle to survive on a rugged island as the hierarchy upends and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-front survival film 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 fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, shaped by Cronin’s hands-on craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting piece that twists the dread of a child’s wobbly interpretations. Rating: pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-scale and toplined supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that teases hot-button genre motifs and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family bound to long-buried horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBD. Production: in progress. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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-specific language and elemental fear. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 and why now

Three hands-on forces inform this lineup. First, production that stalled or shifted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter schedules. 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming drops. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will line up across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the target range. 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate 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 qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, acoustics, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand gravity where needed, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.