Age-old Evil returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, landing Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

This haunting otherworldly suspense story from scriptwriter / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an forgotten dread when guests become tools in a devilish struggle. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking portrayal of resistance and old world terror that will revamp horror this harvest season. Produced by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and tone-heavy feature follows five figures who awaken imprisoned in a isolated lodge under the hostile will of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old biblical force. Steel yourself to be hooked by a screen-based adventure that blends gut-punch terror with legendary tales, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a iconic concept in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is radically shifted when the spirits no longer arise from a different plane, but rather internally. This illustrates the malevolent aspect of all involved. The result is a relentless moral showdown where the events becomes a relentless struggle between innocence and sin.


In a unforgiving outland, five characters find themselves contained under the ominous force and inhabitation of a secretive person. As the youths becomes unable to deny her dominion, cut off and chased by evils unnamable, they are thrust to battle their core terrors while the moments ruthlessly winds toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease surges and relationships break, pushing each figure to examine their values and the nature of decision-making itself. The cost intensify with every beat, delivering a scare-fueled ride that marries mystical fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dive into deep fear, an power beyond recorded history, influencing psychological breaks, and questioning a curse that challenges autonomy when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was about accessing something unfamiliar to reason. She is unaware until the takeover begins, and that turn is deeply unsettling because it is so visceral.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure subscribers around the globe can dive into this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its intro video, which has received over six-figure audience.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, taking the terror to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this soul-jarring voyage through terror. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to face these chilling revelations about mankind.


For behind-the-scenes access, production news, and promotions from the story's source, follow @YACMovie across online outlets and visit the official digital haunt.





Modern horror’s inflection point: the 2025 cycle American release plan integrates biblical-possession ideas, underground frights, and series shake-ups

Moving from life-or-death fear saturated with legendary theology and extending to canon extensions plus sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is shaping up as the most stratified plus calculated campaign year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. leading studios plant stakes across the year with franchise anchors, even as OTT services pack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs alongside mythic dread. On another front, horror’s indie wing is carried on the kinetic energy of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, yet in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are methodical, thus 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

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

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s slate opens the year with a statement play: a refashioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. With Leigh Whannell at the helm fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. targeting mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Helmed by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer eases, Warner Bros. delivers the closing chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re boards, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: retrograde shiver, trauma driven plotting, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This pass pushes higher, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The next entry deepens the tale, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, reaching teens and game grownups. It books December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters lean on names and sequels, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Shaped 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. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is an astute call. No overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are more runway than museum.

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 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. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing 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 Brands: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, from Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in 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.

Key Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forward View: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The next scare year to come: brand plays, standalone ideas, and also A hectic Calendar designed for chills

Dek The fresh genre season loads at the outset with a January pile-up, after that runs through summer, and far into the December corridor, combining brand equity, original angles, and tactical counterprogramming. The big buyers and platforms are betting on mid-range economics, box-office-first windows, and social-fueled campaigns that turn genre titles into four-quadrant talking points.

How the genre looks for 2026

The field has emerged as the most reliable counterweight in studio calendars, a category that can grow when it catches and still insulate the drag when it misses. After the 2023 year reassured greenlighters that modestly budgeted chillers can own audience talk, the following year held pace with auteur-driven buzzy films and unexpected risers. The momentum translated to the 2025 frame, where revivals and arthouse crossovers signaled there is a market for different modes, from continued chapters to one-and-done originals that export nicely. The result for 2026 is a roster that presents tight coordination across studios, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of legacy names and untested plays, and a sharpened eye on big-screen windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital and home platforms.

Studio leaders note the space now behaves like a versatile piece on the programming map. Horror can kick off on many corridors, supply a tight logline for trailers and shorts, and exceed norms with viewers that appear on Thursday previews and stick through the second weekend if the movie hits. In the wake of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 setup reflects trust in that dynamic. The year commences with a loaded January window, then primes spring and early summer for contrast, while clearing room for a fall corridor that extends to All Hallows period and past Halloween. The gridline also underscores the continuing integration of specialized labels and SVOD players that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and scale up at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is IP stewardship across shared universes and classic IP. The companies are not just turning out another continuation. They are shaping as story carry-over with a must-see charge, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a casting choice that anchors a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the creative leads behind the marquee originals are prioritizing in-camera technique, practical effects and place-driven backdrops. That convergence gives the 2026 slate a solid mix of brand comfort and novelty, which is how the films export.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the core, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-centered film. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a heritage-honoring approach without rehashing the last two entries’ sibling arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive rooted in classic imagery, character previews, and a staggered trailer plan aimed at 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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will pursue four-quadrant chatter through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format supporting quick adjustments to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three clear pushes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is simple, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an AI companion that shifts into a killer companion. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with marketing at Universal likely to renew creepy live activations and short-form creative that interweaves love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a official title to become an PR pop closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s work are positioned as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a next wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway gives Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has demonstrated that a gnarly, prosthetic-heavy style can feel prestige on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror surge that embraces overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio mounts two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, carrying a steady supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is selling as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both devotees and fresh viewers. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign pieces around universe detail, and practical creature work, elements that can accelerate premium format interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by textural authenticity and linguistic texture, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on stable tracks. The Universal horror run feed copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that amplifies both premiere heat and subscriber lifts in the downstream. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with global acquisitions and small theatrical windows when the data signals it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using timely promos, spooky hubs, and handpicked rows to extend momentum on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival wins, confirming horror entries near their drops and staging as events debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a laddered of focused cinema runs and swift platform pivots that translates talk to trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to board select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 pipeline with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is no-nonsense: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, elevated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the September weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception allows. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

Series vs standalone

By proportion, 2026 leans toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The caveat, as ever, is staleness. The standing approach is to present each entry as a new angle. Paramount is elevating character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and director-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the cast-creatives package is known enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the logic. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept streaming intact did not block a simultaneous release test from hitting when the brand was big. In 2024, auteur craft horror punched above its weight in PLF. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they shift POV and raise the stakes. 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to sustain campaign assets without dead zones.

Technique and craft currents

The craft rooms behind this slate forecast 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 principal photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that emphasizes texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most chilling 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 earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft coverage before rolling out a teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature design and production design, which play well in convention floor stunts and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that sing on PLF.

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. Cineverse’s 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 thick, but the menu of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean have a peek at this web-site run for each if word of mouth carries.

Late winter and spring tee up summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a bridge slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a peekaboo tease plan and limited pre-release reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s synthetic partner unfolds into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures 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: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 severe boss work to survive on a rugged island as the control balance upends and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to chill, founded on Cronin’s practical effects and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 domestic haunting scenario that toys with the panic of a child’s wobbly interpretations. Rating: rating pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-financed and celebrity-led ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A spoof revival that skewers of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBA. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites bursts, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further extends again, with a young family lashed to older hauntings. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-driven horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: forthcoming. Production: underway. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 raw menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that eased or shuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous 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 landings. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work bite-size scare clips from test screenings, controlled scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will compete across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 surprise-hit pursuit 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 harvest those lanes. 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 Young & Cursed 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, 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 cadence and diversity. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sonics, 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand gravity where needed, auteur intent where it matters, 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.