Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons primeval malevolence, a nightmare fueled supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 across major platforms

This eerie supernatural terror film from screenwriter / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an forgotten horror when outsiders become conduits in a cursed game. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving chronicle of endurance and archaic horror that will reimagine the horror genre this scare season. Created by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and atmospheric tale follows five people who awaken imprisoned in a wilderness-bound cottage under the menacing will of Kyra, a young woman possessed by a two-thousand-year-old holy text monster. Get ready to be gripped by a narrative spectacle that fuses visceral dread with mythic lore, arriving on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a long-standing concept in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is inverted when the dark entities no longer form from elsewhere, but rather through their own souls. This marks the deepest version of the group. The result is a intense inner struggle where the intensity becomes a soul-crushing confrontation between divinity and wickedness.


In a unforgiving no-man's-land, five souls find themselves stuck under the malicious effect and possession of a uncanny female figure. As the characters becomes unable to reject her grasp, cut off and followed by terrors indescribable, they are made to wrestle with their inner demons while the deathwatch coldly counts down toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion escalates and links collapse, urging each character to contemplate their identity and the integrity of conscious will itself. The hazard climb with every breath, delivering a scare-fueled ride that marries occult fear with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to channel primal fear, an presence from prehistory, feeding on our weaknesses, and confronting a power that challenges autonomy when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was centered on something beyond human emotion. She is clueless until the evil takes hold, and that flip is shocking because it is so personal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—allowing fans internationally can watch this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its intro video, which has garnered over notable views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, spreading the horror to thrill-seekers globally.


Mark your calendar for this life-altering spiral into evil. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to face these ghostly lessons about the mind.


For featurettes, production insights, and reveals via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across fan hubs and visit the official digital haunt.





Horror’s tipping point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. lineup braids together legend-infused possession, independent shockers, in parallel with legacy-brand quakes

Running from survivor-centric dread infused with primordial scripture and onward to installment follow-ups as well as sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 looks like the richest combined with intentionally scheduled year since the mid-2010s.

Call it full, but it is also focused. the big studios lay down anchors by way of signature titles, in tandem streamers flood the fall with first-wave breakthroughs set against ancestral chills. On another front, horror’s indie wing is riding the momentum from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A fat September–October lane is customary now, however this time, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are precise, thus 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: High-craft horror returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline kicks off the frame with a marquee bet: a modernized Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in an immediate now. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. arriving mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Steered by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer eases, the WB camp releases the last chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 follows. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson resumes command, and the tone that worked before is intact: retro dread, trauma as text, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. Here the stakes rise, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The next entry deepens the tale, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It books December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Firsts: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

On the docket is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable starring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is an astute call. No bloated mythology. No series drag. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Franchise Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

The Road Ahead: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

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



The coming 2026 scare release year: next chapters, fresh concepts, plus A Crowded Calendar aimed at shocks

Dek The brand-new genre slate crowds from day one with a January wave, from there extends through the warm months, and deep into the December corridor, marrying series momentum, novel approaches, and shrewd alternatives. Major distributors and platforms are relying on lean spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and viral-minded pushes that turn these releases into national conversation.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the predictable play in programming grids, a genre that can expand when it breaks through and still cushion the drawdown when it doesn’t. After 2023 proved to top brass that modestly budgeted horror vehicles can own the discourse, 2024 held pace with visionary-driven titles and stealth successes. The tailwind translated to 2025, where re-entries and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is demand for different modes, from sequel tracks to original features that resonate abroad. The aggregate for 2026 is a lineup that is strikingly coherent across the market, with purposeful groupings, a spread of recognizable IP and untested plays, and a refocused stance on exhibition windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital rental and platforms.

Planners observe the genre now operates like a plug-and-play option on the rollout map. Horror can premiere on a wide range of weekends, generate a clear pitch for teasers and vertical videos, and outpace with ticket buyers that respond on Thursday previews and return through the next pass if the title works. On the heels of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 pattern demonstrates comfort in that equation. The calendar begins with a front-loaded January band, then turns to spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while leaving room for a autumn push that flows toward All Hallows period and afterwards. The arrangement also highlights the greater integration of indie distributors and streamers that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and move wide at the inflection point.

A parallel macro theme is brand management across unified worlds and established properties. Major shops are not just turning out another continuation. They are trying to present lore continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting move that anchors a new entry to a first wave. At the same time, the auteurs behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into real-world builds, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That combination yields 2026 a solid mix of brand comfort and freshness, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate titles that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the focus, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a return-to-roots character-forward chapter. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture points to a roots-evoking treatment without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign fueled by franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format making room for quick adjustments to whatever owns genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is straightforward, somber, and premise-first: a grieving man onboards an machine companion that escalates into a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to replay viral uncanny stunts and quick hits that hybridizes longing and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title reveal to become an PR pop closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. His projects are sold as event films, with a minimalist tease and a second trailer wave that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date gives the studio room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has made clear that a visceral, on-set effects led approach can feel prestige on a moderate cost. Look for a red-band summer horror surge that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio rolls out two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, continuing a proven supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is marketing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both loyalists and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around lore, and monster aesthetics, elements that can accelerate large-format demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants 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 grounded in historical precision and dialect, this time set against lycan legends. Focus Features has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is favorable.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform windowing in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal titles land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a stair-step that elevates both FOMO and trial spikes in the after-window. Prime Video balances licensed content with worldwide entries and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and editorial rows to extend momentum on the annual genre haul. Netflix remains opportunistic about originals and festival wins, securing horror entries toward the drop and coalescing around go-lives with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a two-step of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a per-project basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly engagement when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 pipeline with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clean: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, retooled for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late-season weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has worked well for elevated genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception allows. Expect 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 as partners, using select theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their audience.

Series vs standalone

By volume, the 2026 slate skews toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate household recognition. The challenge, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to sell each check my blog entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is emphasizing character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a Francophone tone from a fresh helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the package is familiar enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night turnout.

The last three-year set announce the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a simultaneous release test from working when the brand was sticky. In 2024, art-forward horror outperformed in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they change perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot consecutively, builds a path for marketing to thread films through character arcs and themes and to leave creative active without extended gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The director conversations behind these films signal a continued lean toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that highlights tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft features before rolling out a tone piece that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and produces shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta pivot that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature work and production design, which favor booth activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel must-have. Look for trailers that accent razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in premium houses.

Annual flow

January is packed. 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 heavier IP. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the variety of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Pre-summer months stage summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a bridge slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited plot reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s digital partner mutates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

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 face a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her unyielding boss scramble to survive on a isolated island as the pecking order inverts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fear, built on Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 domestic haunting story that toys with the dread of a child’s uncertain perceptions. Rating: TBA. Production: in the can. Positioning: major-studio and star-led haunting 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 return that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 ignites, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household tethered to long-buried horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-first horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: to be announced. Production: ongoing. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and primal menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three grounded forces organize this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or reshuffled in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and condensed timelines. 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify meme-ready beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

The slot calculus is real. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 search for sleepers 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 harvest those lanes. 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. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, soundcraft, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is name recognition where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shocks sell the seats.