Antediluvian Terror Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror thriller, bowing October 2025 across global platforms

One bone-chilling otherworldly horror tale from dramatist / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an archaic malevolence when unknowns become pawns in a diabolical struggle. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing portrayal of survival and primeval wickedness that will revolutionize genre cinema this harvest season. Directed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and eerie cinema piece follows five lost souls who suddenly rise ensnared in a secluded house under the ominous dominion of Kyra, a haunted figure possessed by a prehistoric biblical demon. Anticipate to be drawn in by a narrative adventure that harmonizes bodily fright with timeless legends, arriving on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a recurring theme in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is radically shifted when the forces no longer come from a different plane, but rather inside their minds. This depicts the haunting aspect of the protagonists. The result is a intense internal warfare where the emotions becomes a soul-crushing confrontation between light and darkness.


In a barren terrain, five campers find themselves contained under the possessive control and infestation of a elusive being. As the survivors becomes unresisting to fight her command, isolated and hunted by unknowns ungraspable, they are thrust to wrestle with their core terrors while the clock harrowingly ticks onward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion amplifies and partnerships erode, requiring each character to scrutinize their values and the integrity of freedom of choice itself. The intensity magnify with every heartbeat, delivering a chilling narrative that weaves together demonic fright with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to extract core terror, an presence before modern man, influencing our fears, and wrestling with a evil that challenges autonomy when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra asked for exploring something past sanity. She is clueless until the curse activates, and that evolution is soul-crushing because it is so visceral.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for home viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving audiences globally can experience this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its original promo, which has garnered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, delivering the story to a worldwide audience.


Do not miss this bone-rattling voyage through terror. Enter *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to confront these evil-rooted truths about the psyche.


For film updates, making-of footage, and updates from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit our film’s homepage.





American horror’s sea change: calendar year 2025 U.S. lineup melds myth-forward possession, art-house nightmares, stacked beside returning-series thunder

From life-or-death fear steeped in near-Eastern lore and stretching into IP renewals and incisive indie visions, 2025 appears poised to be the most variegated in tandem with blueprinted year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios lock in tentpoles by way of signature titles, concurrently streamers pack the fall with discovery plays as well as mythic dread. On the festival side, festival-forward creators is surfing the momentum of a banner 2024 fest year. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are surgical, and 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: The Return of Prestige Fear

The majors are assertive. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s slate begins the calendar with a confident swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a clear present-tense world. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Guided by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

By late summer, Warner Bros. Pictures releases the last chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: period tinged dread, trauma foregrounded, along with eerie supernatural rules. This run ups the stakes, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The continuation widens the legend, stretches the animatronic parade, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It posts in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a two hander body horror spiral pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story with Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, 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.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one bores into 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.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a clever angle. No overstuffed canon. No brand fatigue. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

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

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Series Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

Trend Lines

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror swings back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: Autumn density and winter pivot

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. 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.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The next fright calendar year ahead: continuations, new stories, paired with A hectic Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek The upcoming terror cycle builds at the outset with a January cluster, then carries through the summer months, and pushing into the year-end corridor, combining IP strength, creative pitches, and shrewd release strategy. Studios and platforms are relying on cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and social-fueled campaigns that convert these pictures into water-cooler talk.

How the genre looks for 2026

The field has solidified as the bankable play in distribution calendars, a lane that can break out when it connects and still protect the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 showed buyers that efficiently budgeted chillers can lead the zeitgeist, the following year maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The energy fed into 2025, where returns and awards-minded projects signaled there is appetite for varied styles, from series extensions to original features that travel well. The result for the 2026 slate is a grid that is strikingly coherent across studios, with strategic blocks, a spread of known properties and untested plays, and a renewed emphasis on exhibition windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium on-demand and home streaming.

Distribution heads claim the space now performs as a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can premiere on a wide range of weekends, provide a simple premise for ad units and TikTok spots, and exceed norms with audiences that respond on Thursday nights and stay strong through the week two if the feature satisfies. After a work stoppage lag, the 2026 pattern demonstrates faith in that model. The calendar begins with a busy January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a late-year stretch that carries into the fright window and afterwards. The map also spotlights the continuing integration of indie arms and OTT outlets that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and roll out at the proper time.

A second macro trend is IP stewardship across connected story worlds and heritage properties. Studios are not just releasing another next film. They are moving to present story carry-over with a must-see charge, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts this page a refreshed voice or a casting pivot that reconnects a next entry to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the creative teams behind the most watched originals are championing hands-on technique, real effects and place-driven backdrops. That convergence hands 2026 a solid mix of trust and novelty, which is how the films export.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount establishes early momentum with two prominent plays that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-centered film. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the narrative stance announces a heritage-honoring approach without looping the last two entries’ sisters thread. Anticipate a campaign built on signature symbols, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots 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 in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a summer alternative, this one will pursue wide buzz through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever rules trend lines that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is tidy, soulful, and concept-forward: a grieving man sets up an synthetic partner that becomes a fatal companion. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to iterate on strange in-person beats and quick hits that interlaces devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a branding reveal to become an headline beat closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His entries are treated as event films, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The prime October weekend offers Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, in-camera leaning mix can feel elevated on a controlled budget. Expect a gore-forward summer horror jolt that emphasizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio sets two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, maintaining a reliable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio 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 steps back in what the studio is billing 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 creature design, elements that can drive IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-culture participation.

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 follows Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in immersive craft and period speech, this time engaging werewolf myth. The label has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is supportive.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform windowing in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal titles flow to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a sequence that boosts both week-one demand and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video balances outside acquisitions with global originals and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library curation, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and collection rows to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix keeps flexible about original films and festival wins, timing horror entries near their drops and elevating as drops drops with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a staged of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown a willingness to pick up select projects with name filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 corridor with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clean: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, elevated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-first horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception encourages. Expect 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 in tandem, using small theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate bends toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage brand equity. The risk, as ever, is staleness. The preferred tactic is to present each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is elevating character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a continental coloration from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the configuration is recognizable enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday previews.

Recent-year comps clarify the template. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that preserved streaming windows did not deter a dual release from succeeding when the brand was sticky. In 2024, director-craft horror popped in PLF. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reframe POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on 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 shot in tandem, allows marketing to tie installments through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without lulls.

How the look and feel evolve

The filmmaking conversations behind this slate indicate a continued turn toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that spotlights texture and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for textured sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft profiles and guild coverage before rolling out a teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and drives shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta reframe that centers its original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster work and world-building, which are ideal for fan-con activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that center disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that work in PLF.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is busy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid marquee brands. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the range of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now enables 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late summer into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a opaque tease strategy and limited teasers that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s algorithmic partner mutates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: atmospheric game 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 demanding boss fight to survive on a isolated island as the control dynamic reverses and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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, anchored by Cronin’s hands-on craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting piece that toys with the chill of a child’s shaky read. Rating: TBD. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed and marquee-led spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that pokes at hot-button genre motifs and true crime preoccupations. Rating: TBD. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a another family tethered to past horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-driven horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: continuing. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and elemental dread. Rating: TBD. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational Check This Out forces structure this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or rearranged in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage clippable moments from test screenings, managed scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 modest-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 shock 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 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 leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions 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 value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, aural design, 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.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is name recognition where it counts, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the screams sell the seats.