Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on leading streamers

One unnerving unearthly shockfest from author / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an forgotten dread when unknowns become tokens in a diabolical ordeal. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching narrative of resistance and mythic evil that will reshape genre cinema this fall. Helmed by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and eerie feature follows five unacquainted souls who come to imprisoned in a isolated house under the aggressive sway of Kyra, a central character haunted by a timeless Old Testament spirit. Brace yourself to be seized by a visual event that unites raw fear with mythic lore, premiering on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a classic fixture in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is flipped when the presences no longer come outside their bodies, but rather from their psyche. This depicts the shadowy version of the protagonists. The result is a psychologically brutal mental war where the suspense becomes a merciless fight between innocence and sin.


In a barren terrain, five souls find themselves imprisoned under the unholy dominion and spiritual invasion of a uncanny person. As the ensemble becomes vulnerable to resist her dominion, disconnected and targeted by beings ungraspable, they are cornered to stand before their inner horrors while the deathwatch coldly winds toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear grows and bonds break, requiring each survivor to scrutinize their self and the nature of freedom of choice itself. The consequences escalate with every breath, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that weaves together spiritual fright with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to explore basic terror, an evil born of forgotten ages, channeling itself through human fragility, and examining a will that tests the soul when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra involved tapping into something beyond human emotion. She is blind until the haunting manifests, and that evolution is eerie because it is so private.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing streamers around the globe can be part of this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its intro video, which has gathered over 100K plays.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, offering the tale to fans of fear everywhere.


Witness this unforgettable voyage through terror. Face *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to witness these evil-rooted truths about inner darkness.


For featurettes, on-set glimpses, and reveals from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit the movie portal.





Modern horror’s tipping point: the year 2025 U.S. rollouts blends old-world possession, signature indie scares, stacked beside returning-series thunder

Moving from survivor-centric dread suffused with old testament echoes all the way to IP renewals set beside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 appears poised to be horror’s most layered paired with blueprinted year in ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. the big studios hold down the year by way of signature titles, simultaneously streamers load up the fall with unboxed visions paired with scriptural shivers. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is riding the tailwinds of a banner 2024 fest year. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, distinctly in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are disciplined, hence 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: The Return of Prestige Fear

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal Pictures starts the year with an audacious swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a clear present-tense world. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. targeting 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 brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Helmed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial heat flags it as potent.

By late summer, the WB camp delivers the closing chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. 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, and a cold supernatural calculus. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It bows in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Originals: No Budget, No Problem

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga fronted 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 project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

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.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Scripted and led 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.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is canny scheduling. No overweight mythology. No sequel clutter. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

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.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

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, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Franchise Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

What to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror retakes ground
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The 2026 fear cycle: brand plays, fresh concepts, paired with A packed Calendar geared toward shocks

Dek: The emerging genre year packs from the jump with a January crush, thereafter runs through peak season, and running into the December corridor, braiding marquee clout, fresh ideas, and shrewd counterweight. Studios and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that pivot these releases into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the bankable play in distribution calendars, a segment that can spike when it performs and still limit the downside when it does not. After the 2023 year signaled to studio brass that low-to-mid budget genre plays can own the discourse, the following year kept energy high with buzzy auteur projects and sleeper breakouts. The trend translated to 2025, where revivals and festival-grade titles made clear there is capacity for multiple flavors, from sequel tracks to non-IP projects that resonate abroad. The end result for 2026 is a roster that reads highly synchronized across players, with defined corridors, a combination of marquee IP and first-time concepts, and a renewed attention on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium on-demand and home streaming.

Planners observe the category now behaves like a wildcard on the schedule. The genre can open on virtually any date, supply a grabby hook for marketing and vertical videos, and lead with audiences that show up on preview nights and continue through the next weekend if the movie satisfies. Following a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm reflects comfort in that model. The calendar opens with a weighty January corridor, then taps spring and early summer for contrast, while leaving room for a September to October window that reaches into late October and into the next week. The layout also shows the tightening integration of indie distributors and streamers that can launch in limited release, generate chatter, and scale up at the precise moment.

An added macro current is legacy care across brand ecosystems and legacy franchises. Studio teams are not just mounting another next film. They are moving to present brand continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title design that signals a new vibe or a lead change that connects a latest entry to a heyday. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the high-profile originals are prioritizing tactile craft, on-set effects and distinct locales. That fusion gives 2026 a vital pairing of comfort and freshness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount sets the tone early with two centerpiece pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the lead, framing it as both a lineage transfer and a back-to-basics character-focused installment. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach announces a memory-charged approach without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Expect a marketing push leaning on legacy iconography, first images of characters, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will chase general-audience talk through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format allowing quick updates to whatever drives the social talk that spring.

Universal has three separate releases. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is efficient, melancholic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man purchases an algorithmic mate that mutates into a killer companion. The date sets it at the front of a heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to mirror off-kilter promo beats and short reels that hybridizes intimacy and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a public title to become an fan moment closer to the debut look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His projects are framed as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a second wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The pre-Halloween slot offers Universal room to command 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has proven that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered style can feel prestige on a moderate cost. Look for a gore-forward summer horror jolt that spotlights offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, holding a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is marketing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both loyalists and curious audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build marketing units around universe detail, and practical creature work, elements that can amplify premium screens and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets 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 careful craft and textual fidelity, this time circling werewolf lore. The company has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is glowing.

Platform lanes and windowing

Digital strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. The studio’s horror films move to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a stair-step that amplifies both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the later phase. Prime Video blends licensed content with global originals and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, genre hubs, and featured rows to sustain interest on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about Netflix originals and festival acquisitions, timing horror entries near their drops and framing as events rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a dual-phase of precision releases and swift platform pivots that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to invest in select projects with established auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for retention when the genre conversation intensifies.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 corridor with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clean: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, upgraded for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has shown results for auteur horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception warrants. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using boutique theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By volume, 2026 tilts in favor of the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on name recognition. The risk, as ever, is overexposure. The go-to fix is to package each entry as a new angle. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a Francophone tone from a rising filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the team and cast is assuring enough to accelerate early sales and advance-audience nights.

Comparable trends from recent years make sense of the template. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that observed windows did not stop a dual release from hitting when the brand was powerful. In 2024, auteur craft horror popped in premium screens. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they pivot perspective and widen scale. 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 two-step approach, with chapters shot back-to-back, enables marketing to tie installments through character and theme and to continue assets in field without long breaks.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft rooms behind this slate forecast a continued emphasis on practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that underscores unease and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in trade spotlights and artisan spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and creates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that centers its original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature design and production design, which play well in fan conventions and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that center pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that explode in larger rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is jammed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid marquee brands. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the tone spread affords lanes to each, and the this content five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late winter and spring tee up summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can pop 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 rotated off PLF.

End of summer through fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder season window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a minimalist tease strategy and limited disclosures that stress concept over spoilers.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s algorithmic partner grows into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot 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 collide with a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: mood-led 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 try to survive on a cut-off island as the hierarchy swivels and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to menace, anchored by Cronin’s material craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting narrative that frames the panic through a preteen’s flickering inner lens. Rating: to be announced. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-grade and marquee-led supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that needles current genre trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBD. Production: filming slated 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 breaks out, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new clan tethered to old terrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A new start designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-first horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: to be announced. Production: underway. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and elemental dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three grounded forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or rearranged in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming placements. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

The slot calculus is real. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will trade weekends across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundcraft, and visuals 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

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is IP strength where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.