Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites mythic darkness, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on global platforms

An hair-raising mystic nightmare movie from scriptwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an forgotten terror when foreigners become proxies in a demonic experiment. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching episode of overcoming and age-old darkness that will redefine genre cinema this spooky time. Realized by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and claustrophobic story follows five unacquainted souls who wake up caught in a hidden hideaway under the dark will of Kyra, a cursed figure consumed by a antiquated sacred-era entity. Steel yourself to be shaken by a screen-based display that unites gut-punch terror with folklore, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a enduring concept in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is twisted when the beings no longer appear from external sources, but rather through their own souls. This symbolizes the haunting element of all involved. The result is a psychologically brutal mental war where the narrative becomes a soul-crushing tug-of-war between divinity and wickedness.


In a forsaken outland, five friends find themselves confined under the ghastly presence and control of a uncanny character. As the victims becomes powerless to escape her dominion, disconnected and followed by spirits inconceivable, they are compelled to endure their inner horrors while the clock unceasingly ticks onward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust intensifies and links fracture, pressuring each individual to reconsider their self and the concept of self-determination itself. The consequences amplify with every beat, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that connects otherworldly suspense with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to draw upon ancestral fear, an malevolence beyond recorded history, manifesting in our fears, and navigating a force that erodes the self when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra involved tapping into something unfamiliar to reason. She is uninformed until the control shifts, and that transformation is eerie because it is so intimate.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—providing watchers across the world can get immersed in this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its initial teaser, which has attracted over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, taking the terror to a worldwide audience.


Join this cinematic exploration of dread. Stream *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to witness these terrifying truths about the soul.


For exclusive trailers, special features, and news from the story's source, follow @YACFilm across your socials and visit the official website.





American horror’s Turning Point: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule interlaces ancient-possession motifs, Indie Shockers, alongside series shake-ups

Beginning with grit-forward survival fare saturated with legendary theology all the way to legacy revivals alongside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the most dimensioned along with intentionally scheduled year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio powerhouses set cornerstones using marquee IP, concurrently streamers pack the fall with debut heat plus scriptural shivers. Meanwhile, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the tailwinds of a banner 2024 fest year. Since Halloween is the prized date, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, yet in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, so 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s distribution arm opens the year with a big gambit: a contemporary Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Helmed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer tapers, Warner’s pipeline sets loose the finale of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re engages, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, bridging teens and legacy players. It hits in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Authored and directed 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. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

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 swollen lore. No brand fatigue. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

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.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

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

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

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trends Worth Watching

Old myth goes broad
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 does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror ascends again
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival glow translates to 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.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Season Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The approaching spook Year Ahead: follow-ups, fresh concepts, plus A stacked Calendar calibrated for shocks

Dek The arriving terror slate crams from day one with a January glut, before it rolls through the mid-year, and deep into the year-end corridor, balancing legacy muscle, creative pitches, and tactical counterplay. Studios and platforms are focusing on responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that pivot horror entries into culture-wide discussion.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This category has solidified as the bankable counterweight in studio lineups, a pillar that can surge when it resonates and still protect the exposure when it does not. After the 2023 year reassured leaders that disciplined-budget fright engines can own the zeitgeist, the following year maintained heat with filmmaker-forward plays and stealth successes. The momentum extended into 2025, where legacy revivals and elevated films proved there is appetite for a variety of tones, from continued chapters to original features that translate worldwide. The combined impact for 2026 is a lineup that is strikingly coherent across the industry, with planned clusters, a equilibrium of recognizable IP and novel angles, and a re-energized strategy on big-screen windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and home streaming.

Insiders argue the genre now acts as a versatile piece on the programming map. Horror can launch on nearly any frame, provide a clean hook for promo reels and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with patrons that line up on advance nights and stick through the next weekend if the movie pays off. Exiting a work stoppage lag, the 2026 mapping demonstrates assurance in that playbook. The year commences with a stacked January stretch, then turns to spring and early summer for contrast, while making space for a late-year stretch that stretches into the Halloween corridor and afterwards. The map also highlights the expanded integration of indie arms and streamers that can build gradually, build word of mouth, and scale up at the sweet spot.

A further high-level trend is brand strategy across shared universes and heritage properties. The studios are not just producing another entry. They are moving to present story carry-over with a headline quality, whether that is a title presentation that suggests a refreshed voice or a casting pivot that links a incoming chapter to a classic era. At the same time, the creative leads behind the headline-grabbing originals are championing in-camera technique, practical gags and vivid settings. That pairing hands the 2026 slate a vital pairing of home base and discovery, which is the formula for international play.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount defines the early cadence with two big-ticket releases that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the lead, setting it up as both a lineage transfer and a origin-leaning character piece. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the directional approach indicates a fan-service aware strategy without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Plan for a rollout rooted in franchise iconography, character spotlights, and a tease cadence slated for 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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side 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 wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick pivots to whatever tops pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three unique pushes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is crisp, loss-driven, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an AI companion that escalates into a killer companion. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with marketing at Universal likely to revisit off-kilter promo beats and brief clips that hybridizes intimacy and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a final title to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. The filmmaker’s films are marketed as director events, with a hinting teaser and a second trailer wave that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has demonstrated that a flesh-and-blood, on-set effects led mix can feel cinematic on a mid-range budget. Look for a splatter summer horror charge that maximizes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio places two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, maintaining a reliable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is selling as a clean-slate approach 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 sharper mandate to serve both longtime followers and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build artifacts around world-building, and monster craft, elements that can accelerate large-format demand and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror defined by obsessive craft and language, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus’s team has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is favorable.

Streaming windows and tactics

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on proven patterns. The Universal horror run land on copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a tiered path that optimizes both initial urgency and viewer acquisition in the tail. Prime Video blends library titles with world buys and small theatrical windows when the data signals it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using editorial spots, genre hubs, and curated strips to stretch the tail on the horror cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival acquisitions, finalizing horror entries toward the drop and eventizing drops with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a laddered of targeted cinema placements and prompt my company platform moves that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a discrete basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to board select projects with recognized filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

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 setup is clean: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, upgraded for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festival season if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas corridor to broaden. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-first 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 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. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using boutique theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Brands and originals

By share, 2026 tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is staleness. The practical approach is to brand each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is centering relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the bundle is known enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the logic. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that honored streaming windows did not stop a day-date try from working when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, lets marketing to interlace chapters through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets in-market without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate forecast a continued emphasis on material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that underscores aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in feature stories and craft features before rolling out a first look that leans on mood over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gross-out texture, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta refresh that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature and environment design, which are ideal for expo activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel must-have. Look for trailers that center pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that shine in top rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is packed. 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 atmospheric change-up amid heavier IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the spread of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth holds.

Q1 into Q2 seed summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads 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 spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is this page strong. 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 finished their premium pass.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited advance reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum 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 is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s essence. 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 grieving man’s AI companion becomes something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 difficult boss try to survive on a lonely island as the pecking order upends and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential 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: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting chiller that explores the unease of a child’s unreliable impressions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: post-ready. Positioning: major-studio and A-list fronted supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that teases modern genre fads and true crime fervors. Rating: undetermined. Production: shoot planned 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: production in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further reopens, with a another family tethered to past horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in classic survival-horror tone over action spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: proceeding. 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 period-specific language and raw menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three practical forces organize this lineup. First, production that paused or recalendared in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and compressed schedules. 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming releases. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on meme-ready beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where lower and 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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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 year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient placements, 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 visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is IP strength where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, hold the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.