Antediluvian Terror surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled shocker, launching October 2025 on major streaming services

A hair-raising otherworldly nightmare movie from scriptwriter / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an ancient curse when drifters become tokens in a diabolical trial. Going live on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching saga of survival and primordial malevolence that will reimagine terror storytelling this autumn. Directed by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and cinematic motion picture follows five young adults who regain consciousness caught in a far-off cabin under the malevolent power of Kyra, a troubled woman inhabited by a prehistoric biblical demon. Get ready to be gripped by a narrative display that intertwines bodily fright with timeless legends, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a historical trope in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is turned on its head when the monsters no longer develop outside the characters, but rather within themselves. This represents the most sinister element of these individuals. The result is a relentless identity crisis where the events becomes a soul-crushing contest between divinity and wickedness.


In a desolate wilderness, five youths find themselves imprisoned under the unholy grip and overtake of a unknown being. As the victims becomes incapable to reject her power, detached and chased by beings unimaginable, they are pushed to confront their emotional phantoms while the clock relentlessly runs out toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear grows and links erode, compelling each individual to reconsider their existence and the idea of free will itself. The pressure accelerate with every breath, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that intertwines otherworldly suspense with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to extract core terror, an entity that existed before mankind, operating within inner turmoil, and exposing a curse that forces self-examination when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra meant channeling something more primal than sorrow. She is in denial until the invasion happens, and that transformation is gut-wrenching because it is so close.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for on-demand beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure viewers anywhere can face this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has seen over notable views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, taking the terror to global fright lovers.


Experience this gripping voyage through terror. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to face these ghostly lessons about free will.


For previews, on-set glimpses, and updates from the cast and crew, follow @YACMovie across media channels and visit our spooky domain.





Horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 across markets U.S. release slate braids together old-world possession, festival-born jolts, paired with legacy-brand quakes

Across last-stand terror infused with scriptural legend and stretching into installment follow-ups plus sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is coalescing into the most dimensioned as well as carefully orchestrated year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. major banners stabilize the year with established lines, in tandem premium streamers pack the fall with unboxed visions plus scriptural shivers. In the indie lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is propelled by the kinetic energy from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, however this time, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are surgical, thus 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige terror resurfaces

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal camp starts the year with a marquee bet: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, inside today’s landscape. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. landing in mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Under Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer tapers, Warner’s pipeline bows the concluding entry inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson returns, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: nostalgic menace, trauma driven plotting, with ghostly inner logic. This time the stakes climb, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The continuation widens the legend, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It posts in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: Tight funds, wide impact

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale led by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, 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 dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, 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.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No overweight mythology. No series drag. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Long Running Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

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. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new 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, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

What to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror swings back
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

The Road Ahead: Autumn Overload and the 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 such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The approaching spook year to come: Sequels, new stories, plus A stacked Calendar engineered for chills

Dek The new horror cycle builds up front with a January crush, thereafter flows through summer, and well into the holidays, combining marquee clout, creative pitches, and calculated release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are relying on right-sized spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that frame genre titles into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror filmmaking has proven to be the bankable tool in studio slates, a pillar that can lift when it breaks through and still insulate the drawdown when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured greenlighters that low-to-mid budget entries can command the zeitgeist, 2024 sustained momentum with visionary-driven titles and word-of-mouth wins. The run moved into the 2025 frame, where revivals and critical darlings highlighted there is appetite for varied styles, from brand follow-ups to original features that travel well. The result for 2026 is a schedule that presents tight coordination across companies, with obvious clusters, a harmony of recognizable IP and new packages, and a sharpened stance on theatrical windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and platforms.

Studio leaders note the space now behaves like a wildcard on the slate. The genre can kick off on many corridors, furnish a clear pitch for trailers and vertical videos, and exceed norms with moviegoers that appear on opening previews and hold through the sophomore frame if the release fires. Exiting a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm signals trust in that playbook. The year launches with a heavy January window, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while saving space for a October build that connects to the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The program also underscores the continuing integration of indie arms and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across brand ecosystems and legacy franchises. Distribution groups are not just rolling another chapter. They are seeking to position lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a brandmark that indicates a recalibrated tone or a casting move that threads a next film to a vintage era. At the alongside this, the filmmakers behind the high-profile originals are prioritizing on-set craft, on-set effects and distinct locales. That fusion produces the 2026 slate a strong blend of known notes and surprise, which is what works overseas.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight projects that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a cross-generational handoff and a foundation-forward character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a throwback-friendly bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected driven by iconic art, early character teases, and a promo sequence landing toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will double down on. As a summer contrast play, this one will build broad awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick pivots to whatever leads trend lines that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is clean, tragic, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that shifts into a killer companion. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on viral uncanny stunts and brief clips that blurs attachment and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a branding reveal to become an attention spike closer to the teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are branded as auteur events, with a concept-forward tease and a follow-up trailer set that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot affords Universal to fill 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has long shown that a in-your-face, makeup-driven strategy can feel high-value on a tight budget. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror hit that leans into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio rolls out two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, sustaining a reliable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is marketing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both fans and novices. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build materials around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can fuel IMAX and PLF uptake and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by obsessive craft and textual fidelity, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is robust.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre entries land on copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a sequence that expands both first-week urgency and subscriber lifts in the later phase. Prime Video blends third-party pickups with worldwide entries and limited cinema engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library pulls, using well-timed internal promotions, October hubs, and featured rows to extend momentum on overall cume. Netflix keeps optionality about originals and festival acquisitions, finalizing horror entries tight to release and eventizing go-lives with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a tiered of tailored theatrical exposure and quick platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a selective basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to invest in select projects with prestige directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 pipeline with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is simple: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, upgraded for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late stretch.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday dates to increase reach. That positioning has delivered for director-led genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception drives. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using boutique theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their paid base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By share, the 2026 slate favors the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness name recognition. The caveat, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to pitch each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is bringing forward character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a new voice. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the packaging is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent comps announce the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not preclude a hybrid test from thriving when the brand was big. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror popped in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reorient and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances 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 filmed in sequence, permits marketing to cross-link entries through character arcs and themes and to hold creative in the market without dead zones.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind 2026 horror suggest a continued lean toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that spotlights texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft features before rolling out a teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for red-band excess, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and drives shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta recalibration that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature work and production design, which lend themselves to convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that sing on PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. 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 foggy reset amid marquee brands. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the range of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Pre-summer months prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

August into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a late-September window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a minimalist tease strategy and limited information drops that trade in concept over detail.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday card usage.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s virtual companion grows into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: fog-and-fear adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss try to survive on a cut-off island as the hierarchy turns and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in Get More Info official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to menace, founded on Cronin’s physical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 domestic haunting premise that filters its scares through a youth’s uncertain inner lens. Rating: TBD. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that teases modern genre fads and true crime fervors. Rating: undetermined. Production: production booked 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 detonates, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new family tethered to lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 era-accurate language and bone-deep menace. Rating: TBD. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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

Why 2026 makes sense

Three execution-level forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that slowed or reshuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest social-ready stingers from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

The slot calculus is real. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, freeing space for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will line up across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can benefit from 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 stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, 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 sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, disciplined footprints, 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, acoustics, and framing 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand gravity where needed, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.