Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

This blood-curdling occult nightmare movie from creator / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an primordial curse when outsiders become puppets in a demonic trial. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing depiction of continuance and primordial malevolence that will revamp scare flicks this scare season. Visualized by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and claustrophobic thriller follows five teens who snap to stuck in a isolated cabin under the menacing sway of Kyra, a female presence claimed by a legendary holy text monster. Brace yourself to be immersed by a visual spectacle that fuses soul-chilling terror with biblical origins, debuting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a legendary fixture in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is inverted when the monsters no longer manifest from a different plane, but rather inside them. This suggests the shadowy part of every character. The result is a gripping spiritual tug-of-war where the tension becomes a ongoing push-pull between righteousness and malevolence.


In a bleak terrain, five friends find themselves caught under the possessive sway and overtake of a uncanny being. As the youths becomes unable to combat her will, left alone and attacked by presences beyond comprehension, they are required to encounter their inner horrors while the countdown ruthlessly pushes forward toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust grows and associations splinter, compelling each figure to scrutinize their core and the structure of self-determination itself. The threat accelerate with every passing moment, delivering a scare-fueled ride that harmonizes otherworldly panic with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to tap into primal fear, an curse that predates humanity, working through mental cracks, and challenging a spirit that challenges autonomy when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra required summoning something darker than pain. She is unaware until the entity awakens, and that shift is soul-crushing because it is so internal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audience access beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing horror lovers across the world can face this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first preview, which has gathered over notable views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, giving access to the movie to a worldwide audience.


Don’t miss this gripping voyage through terror. Face *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to confront these ghostly lessons about existence.


For previews, making-of footage, and announcements from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across entertainment pages and visit the official website.





Today’s horror watershed moment: 2025 across markets U.S. lineup melds archetypal-possession themes, signature indie scares, alongside returning-series thunder

Running from last-stand terror saturated with scriptural legend as well as franchise returns alongside pointed art-house angles, 2025 looks like the most textured in tandem with tactically planned year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Top studios plant stakes across the year by way of signature titles, in parallel premium streamers front-load the fall with emerging auteurs set against legend-coded dread. Meanwhile, festival-forward creators is fueled by the backdraft of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, though in this cycle, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are precise, so 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

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

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s slate begins the calendar with a headline swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a sharp contemporary setting. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. timed for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Under Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. Pictures rolls out the capstone from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re engages, and those signature textures resurface: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, and a cold supernatural calculus. This pass pushes higher, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The next entry deepens the tale, builds out the animatronic fear crew, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It opens in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is virtually assured for fall.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable starring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. 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 the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is canny scheduling. No overinflated mythology. No brand fatigue. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, with Francis Lawrence directing, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror returns
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forward View: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift 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 key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The new chiller slate: installments, standalone ideas, together with A busy Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek The emerging terror season stacks immediately with a January crush, and then runs through June and July, and carrying into the festive period, blending IP strength, fresh ideas, and strategic counterplay. Studios with streamers are focusing on efficient budgets, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that transform these releases into mainstream chatter.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The horror marketplace has grown into the bankable counterweight in programming grids, a space that can expand when it breaks through and still limit the drawdown when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year showed studio brass that disciplined-budget pictures can steer audience talk, 2024 carried the beat with buzzy auteur projects and word-of-mouth wins. The trend carried into the 2025 frame, where revivals and awards-minded projects highlighted there is a market for varied styles, from series extensions to director-led originals that scale internationally. The sum for the 2026 slate is a slate that looks unusually coordinated across players, with clear date clusters, a equilibrium of familiar brands and untested plays, and a revived eye on theatrical windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital and platforms.

Schedulers say the space now slots in as a wildcard on the distribution slate. Horror can launch on a wide range of weekends, create a easy sell for ad units and TikTok spots, and outperform with crowds that line up on advance nights and stay strong through the second frame if the film lands. Post a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 cadence signals conviction in that playbook. The year kicks off with a weighty January band, then uses spring and early summer for alternate plays, while reserving space for a fall corridor that connects to the fright window and past the holiday. The map also reflects the ongoing integration of specialized imprints and digital platforms that can develop over weeks, grow buzz, and move wide at the proper time.

A second macro trend is brand curation across interlocking continuities and legacy franchises. Studios are not just greenlighting another entry. They are shaping as ongoing narrative with a headline quality, whether that is a title treatment that announces a re-angled tone or a casting pivot that threads a new entry to a foundational era. At the alongside this, the writer-directors behind the most watched originals are leaning into material texture, real effects and concrete locations. That interplay produces the 2026 slate a solid mix of recognition and freshness, which is how the films export.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount opens strong with two marquee plays that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the center, framing it as both a succession moment and a foundation-forward character-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the narrative stance telegraphs a roots-evoking angle without recycling the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. A campaign is expected leaning on heritage visuals, character previews, and a tiered teaser plan hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will feature. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will go after mass reach through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format making room for quick redirects to whatever defines the conversation that spring.

Universal has three discrete entries. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is straightforward, grief-rooted, and high-concept: a grieving man implements an digital partner that shifts into a killer companion. The date nudges it to the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to mirror off-kilter promo beats and micro spots that mixes longing and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a official title to become an earned moment closer to the first look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s work are positioned as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later trailer push that signal tone without plot the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has consistently shown that a gnarly, practical-effects forward treatment can feel elevated on a middle budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror shot that centers global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio places two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, keeping a reliable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is selling as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both franchise faithful and novices. The fall slot hands Sony window to build promo materials around canon, and creature design, elements that can accelerate premium format interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a great post to read prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by obsessive craft and period speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus’s team has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is robust.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on established tracks. The Universal horror run head to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a sequence that enhances both FOMO and subscriber lifts in the late-window. Prime Video interleaves third-party pickups with international acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data points to it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog discovery, using featured rows, Halloween hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix remains opportunistic about first-party entries and festival additions, securing horror entries closer to drop and elevating as drops premieres with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a tiered of focused cinema runs and accelerated platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown appetite to secure select projects with top-tier auteurs or star-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 slate with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is uncomplicated: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, recalibrated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a standard theatrical run for the title, an good sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the autumn weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, stewarding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas window to scale. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-first horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited runs to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

Legacy titles versus originals

By tilt, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use marquee value. The watch-out, as ever, is diminishing returns. The standing approach is to pitch each entry as a renewed feel. 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 leaning into a Francophone tone from a buzzed-about director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the cast-creatives package is assuring enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night crowds.

Three-year comps make sense of the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that honored streaming windows did not preclude a dual release from paying off when the brand was big. In 2024, art-forward horror hit big in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still useful reference feel reinvigorated when they angle differently and raise the stakes. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, builds a path for marketing to thread films through character web and themes and to continue assets in field without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 entries point to a continued tilt toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that highlights creep and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft features before rolling out a tease that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a self-referential reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature design and production design, which lend themselves to convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos get redirected here spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar cadence

January is jammed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid big-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the variety of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Q1 into Q2 set up the summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder season window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a opaque tease strategy and limited teasers that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s intelligent companion mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: aura-driven 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 prickly boss fight to survive on a far-flung island as the chain of command turns and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to menace, rooted in Cronin’s hands-on craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 closed-door haunting scenario that teases the dread of a child’s tricky impressions. Rating: TBA. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

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 genre lampoon that riffs on hot-button genre motifs and true crime fixations. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 detonates, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new clan linked to old terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A new start designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-driven horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 menace. Rating: TBA. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 and why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces shape this lineup. First, production that eased or migrated in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on meme-ready beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will trade weekends across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, 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 sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, soundscape, 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 Looks Exciting

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand equity where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the scares sell the seats.