Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primordial evil, a nerve shredding chiller, launching October 2025 across top digital platforms

One spine-tingling paranormal fear-driven tale from literary architect / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an mythic dread when unfamiliar people become tools in a cursed ordeal. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful narrative of endurance and primordial malevolence that will resculpt scare flicks this season. Visualized by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and moody feature follows five teens who awaken ensnared in a hidden cabin under the dark dominion of Kyra, a central character inhabited by a ancient sacred-era entity. Ready yourself to be ensnared by a motion picture presentation that integrates bone-deep fear with mystical narratives, releasing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a enduring concept in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is flipped when the dark entities no longer develop from elsewhere, but rather through their own souls. This echoes the most primal element of each of them. The result is a harrowing psychological battle where the narrative becomes a constant confrontation between divinity and wickedness.


In a haunting terrain, five characters find themselves sealed under the ghastly presence and spiritual invasion of a obscure apparition. As the team becomes incapacitated to withstand her manipulation, isolated and tormented by unknowns unfathomable, they are confronted to encounter their inner demons while the moments without pause moves toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease grows and ties collapse, demanding each protagonist to reflect on their core and the principle of conscious will itself. The threat magnify with every heartbeat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that merges otherworldly suspense with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to draw upon elemental fright, an power older than civilization itself, influencing our fears, and testing a darkness that tests the soul when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra was centered on something far beyond human desperation. She is unseeing until the spirit seizes her, and that change is terrifying because it is so close.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing subscribers across the world can dive into this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its original clip, which has attracted over a viral response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, delivering the story to thrill-seekers globally.


Mark your calendar for this cinematic exploration of dread. Face *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to experience these fearful discoveries about the human condition.


For bonus footage, making-of footage, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across your favorite networks and visit our film’s homepage.





Current horror’s major pivot: 2025 for genre fans U.S. Slate Mixes archetypal-possession themes, festival-born jolts, alongside franchise surges

Running from survival horror drawn from near-Eastern lore through to franchise returns together with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is shaping up as the most complex along with tactically planned year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. top-tier distributors stabilize the year with franchise anchors, simultaneously digital services front-load the fall with new perspectives and archetypal fear. In parallel, festival-forward creators is propelled by the afterglow of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Since Halloween is the prized date, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, and now, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are methodical, hence 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige fear returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s schedule starts the year with a statement play: a reconceived Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a sharp contemporary setting. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. landing in mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial heat flags it as potent.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner Bros. banner releases the last chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. While the template is known, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson returns to the helm, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: vintage toned fear, trauma centered writing, and a cold supernatural calculus. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale featuring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It reads as sharp positioning. No heavy handed lore. No brand fatigue. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

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

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. 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, steered by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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

Dials to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror retakes ground
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. 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. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

What’s Next: Fall pileup, winter curveball

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

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 goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The approaching fright calendar year ahead: continuations, universe starters, together with A stacked Calendar optimized for nightmares

Dek: The incoming terror cycle builds from the jump with a January pile-up, after that stretches through summer corridors, and straight through the late-year period, fusing series momentum, fresh ideas, and data-minded offsets. Studios and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, box-office-first windows, and platform-native promos that pivot these releases into broad-appeal conversations.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has become the predictable swing in studio slates, a pillar that can expand when it resonates and still mitigate the losses when it falls short. After the 2023 year re-taught greenlighters that low-to-mid budget entries can shape the discourse, the following year carried the beat with festival-darling auteurs and surprise hits. The trend flowed into 2025, where revivals and critical darlings proved there is appetite for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to director-led originals that perform internationally. The end result for the 2026 slate is a calendar that is strikingly coherent across the field, with obvious clusters, a harmony of recognizable IP and original hooks, and a tightened priority on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and digital services.

Buyers contend the category now serves as a schedule utility on the grid. The genre can arrive on a wide range of weekends, furnish a grabby hook for trailers and platform-native cuts, and exceed norms with audiences that arrive on advance nights and hold through the subsequent weekend if the entry works. On the heels of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 rhythm demonstrates faith in that engine. The slate opens with a weighty January window, then turns to spring and early summer for counterweight, while keeping space for a late-year stretch that reaches into the fright window and into November. The gridline also features the increasing integration of arthouse labels and streaming partners that can nurture a platform play, create conversation, and roll out at the optimal moment.

A second macro trend is brand curation across ongoing universes and legacy IP. Studio teams are not just rolling another installment. They are trying to present connection with a heightened moment, whether that is a graphic identity that flags a fresh attitude or a cast configuration that connects a incoming chapter to a foundational era. At the alongside this, the writer-directors behind the top original plays are embracing physical effects work, practical gags and specific settings. That pairing delivers 2026 a lively combination of known notes and unexpected turns, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount defines the early cadence with two prominent projects that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the spine, steering it as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward character-focused installment. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture signals a roots-evoking angle without recycling the last two entries’ sisters thread. Look for a marketing run driven by classic imagery, first images of characters, and a rollout cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will feature. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will chase wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick redirects to whatever leads trend lines that spring.

Universal has three specific lanes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tidy, soulful, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an synthetic partner that shifts into a killer companion. The date sets it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the marketing arm likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and micro spots that fuses romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a final title to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. His projects are sold as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The late-month date gives the studio room to own 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a gnarly, on-set effects led strategy can feel prestige on a lean spend. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror hit that embraces international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, keeping a proven supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is presenting as a clean-slate approach 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 explicit mandate to serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build promo materials around canon, and creature design, elements that can drive IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by immersive craft and period speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. The company has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is robust.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Windowing plans in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a cadence that enhances both opening-weekend urgency and viewer acquisition in the later window. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog discovery, using editorial spots, fright rows, and programmed rows to sustain interest on overall cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival deals, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and framing as events launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a dual-phase of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a curated basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 pipeline with two IP plays. 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 haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the Young & Cursed original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn stretch.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, managing the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then pressing the year-end corridor to go wider. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-first horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using boutique theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their membership.

Brands and originals

By skew, 2026 is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap franchise value. The challenge, as ever, is fatigue. The practical approach is to sell each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is foregrounding character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a hot helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects add air. 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, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the bundle is known enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Three-year comps illuminate the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not preclude a hybrid test from performing when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror exceeded expectations in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they rotate perspective and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, provides the means for marketing to relate entries through protagonists and motifs and to sustain campaign assets without lulls.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind these films hint at a continued emphasis on in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that underscores tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for red-band excess, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta reframe that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature work and production design, which are ideal for con floor moments and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel must-have. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar cadence

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. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid heftier brand moves. The month wraps 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 meaningful, but the variety of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Winter into spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a bridge slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a peekaboo tease plan and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s algorithmic partner shifts into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 prickly boss fight to survive on a isolated island as the power balance turns and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to menace, anchored by Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting piece that twists the fear of a child’s tricky impressions. Rating: pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-fronted ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A parody reboot that pokes at modern genre fads and true crime preoccupations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 erupts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a different family bound to lingering terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A new start designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-driven horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and elemental dread. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate meme-ready beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, freeing space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will cluster across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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 broad premium screen use 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 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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two 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 sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundcraft, 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 Is Well Positioned

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand gravity where needed, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shocks sell the seats.