Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across top digital platforms

A frightening supernatural horror tale from author / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an ancient horror when drifters become proxies in a devilish conflict. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching narrative of resistance and prehistoric entity that will reshape terror storytelling this ghoul season. Brought to life by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and cinematic fearfest follows five strangers who find themselves trapped in a wooded lodge under the menacing power of Kyra, a mysterious girl dominated by a timeless ancient fiend. Prepare to be absorbed by a immersive journey that combines gut-punch terror with folklore, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a well-established trope in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is twisted when the forces no longer descend from elsewhere, but rather from their psyche. This mirrors the deepest shade of the victims. The result is a enthralling identity crisis where the narrative becomes a merciless clash between light and darkness.


In a haunting wilderness, five individuals find themselves cornered under the evil aura and curse of a mysterious female figure. As the ensemble becomes incapable to withstand her will, abandoned and targeted by creatures unfathomable, they are driven to confront their inner demons while the final hour harrowingly ticks toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust amplifies and partnerships dissolve, coercing each soul to doubt their true nature and the notion of conscious will itself. The risk magnify with every instant, delivering a horror experience that fuses paranormal dread with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to channel elemental fright, an force older than civilization itself, manipulating emotional fractures, and exposing a being that erodes the self when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra involved tapping into something beneath mortal despair. She is unaware until the evil takes hold, and that flip is soul-crushing because it is so intimate.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing subscribers everywhere can survive this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original clip, which has seen over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, spreading the horror to international horror buffs.


Witness this visceral exploration of dread. Explore *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to experience these spiritual awakenings about the mind.


For sneak peeks, set experiences, and news from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursed across entertainment pages and visit our spooky domain.





Today’s horror sea change: 2025 for genre fans U.S. release slate Mixes archetypal-possession themes, Indie Shockers, stacked beside Franchise Rumbles

Moving from endurance-driven terror suffused with primordial scripture and onward to installment follow-ups plus cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is lining up as the most complex in tandem with strategic year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Major studios lock in tentpoles with franchise anchors, even as streamers saturate the fall with first-wave breakthroughs plus legend-coded dread. On another front, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is buoyed by the carry from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are precise, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: High-craft horror returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline starts the year with a confident swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. landing in mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Steered by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer eases, Warner’s schedule bows the concluding entry from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Despite a known recipe, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re engages, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time, the stakes are raised, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It drops in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a sealed box body horror arc with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through 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 all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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. That is a savvy move. No bloated mythology. No series drag. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Heritage Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, under Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Signals and Trends

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror swings back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

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

Forward View: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The 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 mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The oncoming terror cycle: next chapters, fresh concepts, And A loaded Calendar engineered for Scares

Dek: The new horror calendar packs up front with a January pile-up, following that flows through summer corridors, and continuing into the festive period, marrying franchise firepower, creative pitches, and well-timed counter-scheduling. Studios and platforms are focusing on mid-range economics, exclusive theatrical windows first, and shareable marketing that shape genre releases into four-quadrant talking points.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This category has become the dependable play in programming grids, a vertical that can surge when it resonates and still limit the drag when it stumbles. After the 2023 year re-taught greenlighters that mid-range shockers can own mainstream conversation, 2024 continued the surge with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The trend flowed into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and awards-minded projects made clear there is room for diverse approaches, from series extensions to original features that export nicely. The takeaway for 2026 is a roster that appears tightly organized across the major shops, with obvious clusters, a pairing of household franchises and new pitches, and a re-energized eye on theatrical windows that fuel later windows on premium home window and digital services.

Planners observe the horror lane now operates like a swing piece on the grid. The genre can premiere on numerous frames, create a grabby hook for spots and short-form placements, and lead with fans that turn out on preview nights and stay strong through the next weekend if the movie hits. In the wake of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 cadence underscores belief in that setup. The year commences with a loaded January block, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a fall cadence that runs into holiday-adjacent weekends and past the holiday. The layout also illustrates the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and roll out at the proper time.

An added macro current is legacy care across shared IP webs and storied titles. The players are not just greenlighting another sequel. They are setting up threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a new tone or a cast configuration that threads a next film to a vintage era. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the high-profile originals are celebrating real-world builds, on-set effects and grounded locations. That mix yields the 2026 slate a confident blend of home base and freshness, which is the formula for international play.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount sets the tone early with two front-of-slate bets that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the core, steering it as both a relay and a DNA-forward character-forward chapter. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the story approach hints at a legacy-leaning bent without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Plan for a rollout driven by brand visuals, early character teases, and a tease cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reignites 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 in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will stress. As a summer relief option, this one will seek mass reach through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format making room for quick shifts to whatever tops genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three distinct releases. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is efficient, grief-rooted, and high-concept: a grieving man sets up an machine companion that mutates into a perilous partner. The date slots it at the front of a stacked January, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and quick hits that blurs longing and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under early 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 public title to become an event moment closer to the first look. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s releases are sold as creative events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that define feel without revealing the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has long shown that a in-your-face, makeup-driven mix can feel cinematic on a efficient spend. Expect a viscera-heavy summer horror surge that pushes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio lines up two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, sustaining a trusty supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is framing as a new take 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 focus to serve both loyalists and fresh viewers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build marketing units around environmental design, and creature effects, elements that can drive format premiums and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins 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 centered on textural authenticity and language, this time set against lycan legends. The specialty arm has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is glowing.

Platform lanes and windowing

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on have a peek at these guys established tracks. Universal’s genre entries transition to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ladder that fortifies both first-week urgency and sub growth in the after-window. Prime Video balances acquired titles with global acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using featured rows, fright rows, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on aggregate take. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival grabs, finalizing horror entries near their drops and coalescing around releases with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a paired of tailored theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to buy select projects with established auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 runway with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, modernized 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 hinted a big-screen first plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the October weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday frame to broaden. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-driven genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception justifies. Watch for 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 partners, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their user base.

Balance of brands and originals

By tilt, 2026 tips toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit franchise value. The question, as ever, is viewer burnout. The go-to fix is to position each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is emphasizing character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-inflected take from a new voice. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and talent-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the package is steady enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Past-three-year patterns illuminate the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that observed windows did not foreclose a simultaneous release test from performing when the brand was powerful. In Check This Out 2024, craft-forward auteur horror hit big in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they change perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries 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, builds a path for marketing to connect the chapters through protagonists and motifs and to continue assets in field without dead zones.

Technique and craft currents

The creative meetings behind this year’s genre signal a continued emphasis on hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that emphasizes atmosphere and fear rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead press and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that elevates tone over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and spurs shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta reframe that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature design and production design, which match well with convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel necessary. Look for trailers that center surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in big rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is crowded. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid larger brand plays. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Q1 into Q2 set up the summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

End of summer through fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited plot reveals that elevate concept over story.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can play the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s machine mate unfolds into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: gothic-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 push to survive on a remote island as the power balance inverts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to menace, built on Cronin’s on-set craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting premise that mediates the fear via a minor’s uncertain perspective. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in the can. 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 back in the creative mix. Logline: {A send-up revival that lampoons in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime obsessions. 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 multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a fresh family anchored to long-buried horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A new start designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-first horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 raw menace. Rating: pending. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three execution-level forces structure this lineup. First, production that paused or shuffled in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and compressed schedules. 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming landings. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate meme-ready beats from test screenings, managed scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 exploit those windows. 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, aural design, and picture 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, Lined Up To Scare

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand equity where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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, cut crisp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the chills sell the seats.