Primeval Evil Stirs in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising shocker, debuting Oct 2025 on top digital platforms

A terrifying occult suspense story from author / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an prehistoric malevolence when drifters become tools in a devilish trial. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish saga of staying alive and archaic horror that will reconstruct fear-driven cinema this ghoul season. Created by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and atmospheric feature follows five young adults who regain consciousness imprisoned in a cut-off cabin under the malevolent dominion of Kyra, a mysterious girl dominated by a 2,000-year-old holy text monster. Arm yourself to be immersed by a filmic adventure that weaves together soul-chilling terror with folklore, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a classic theme in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is flipped when the fiends no longer develop outside their bodies, but rather inside their minds. This embodies the most hidden element of the victims. The result is a edge-of-seat psychological battle where the plotline becomes a intense face-off between purity and corruption.


In a abandoned woodland, five campers find themselves imprisoned under the unholy grip and overtake of a uncanny apparition. As the protagonists becomes incapacitated to deny her control, exiled and hunted by powers indescribable, they are forced to confront their raw vulnerabilities while the seconds without pause edges forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion rises and associations shatter, forcing each individual to rethink their true nature and the nature of conscious will itself. The intensity rise with every beat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that combines mystical fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to explore ancestral fear, an power rooted in antiquity, emerging via emotional vulnerability, and exposing a force that dismantles free will when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra meant evoking something darker than pain. She is unaware until the evil takes hold, and that evolution is shocking because it is so deep.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for streaming beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—ensuring viewers across the world can dive into this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its initial teaser, which has received over massive response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, taking the terror to scare fans abroad.


Be sure to catch this unforgettable trip into the unknown. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to acknowledge these dark realities about human nature.


For featurettes, special features, and updates from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit the film’s website.





The horror genre’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 for genre fans U.S. Slate blends primeval-possession lore, microbudget gut-punches, paired with legacy-brand quakes

Ranging from survival horror suffused with primordial scripture and extending to legacy revivals and sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 looks like the most dimensioned together with intentionally scheduled year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. major banners are anchoring the year with established lines, in parallel SVOD players saturate the fall with first-wave breakthroughs set against ancient terrors. In parallel, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is buoyed by the carry from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the other windows are mapped with care. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are surgical, as a result 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: The Return of Prestige Fear

The majors are assertive. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s pipeline leads off the quarter with a bold swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in an immediate now. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. set for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Guided by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, Warner’s pipeline unveils the final movement inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: nostalgic menace, trauma driven plotting, along with eerie supernatural rules. This time the stakes climb, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, stretches the animatronic parade, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: No Budget, No Problem

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

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn led by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by 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 threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped 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 a calculated bet. No overstuffed canon. No legacy baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

What to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror resurges
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. 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 success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The 2026 spook cycle: installments, fresh concepts, and also A stacked Calendar calibrated for shocks

Dek The brand-new genre cycle stacks in short order with a January wave, from there spreads through summer corridors, and running into the festive period, mixing series momentum, untold stories, and strategic alternatives. Studios and streamers are focusing on mid-range economics, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-driven marketing that transform these films into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror sector has emerged as the bankable counterweight in studio calendars, a vertical that can grow when it connects and still hedge the losses when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for buyers that modestly budgeted genre plays can shape audience talk, 2024 continued the surge with visionary-driven titles and slow-burn breakouts. The run pushed into 2025, where reboots and arthouse crossovers showed there is capacity for a variety of tones, from series extensions to standalone ideas that play globally. The result for 2026 is a lineup that shows rare alignment across the major shops, with defined corridors, a equilibrium of legacy names and original hooks, and a tightened commitment on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium rental and streaming.

Buyers contend the space now behaves like a swing piece on the grid. Horror can debut on a wide range of weekends, create a tight logline for creative and vertical videos, and outperform with viewers that appear on early shows and keep coming through the subsequent weekend if the film hits. After a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 cadence indicates assurance in that model. The year commences with a thick January window, then uses spring and early summer for audience offsets, while leaving room for a autumn stretch that runs into Halloween and into November. The arrangement also features the stronger partnership of arthouse labels and home platforms that can launch in limited release, create conversation, and grow at the timely point.

A parallel macro theme is IP cultivation across interlocking continuities and legacy franchises. Studios are not just making another sequel. They are trying to present lineage with a must-see charge, whether that is a title design that suggests a refreshed voice or a ensemble decision that connects a fresh chapter to a vintage era. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the top original plays are doubling down on tactile craft, special makeup and vivid settings. That pairing gives 2026 a robust balance of brand comfort and discovery, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount plants an early flag with two spotlight releases that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the heart, signaling it as both a handoff and a heritage-centered character-first story. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the narrative stance points to a roots-evoking strategy without repeating the last two entries’ sibling arc. Count on a promo wave anchored in iconic art, intro reveals, and a tiered teaser plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also revives 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 creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will build mainstream recognition through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick shifts to whatever leads trend lines that spring.

Universal has three separate releases. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is clean, sorrow-tinged, and premise-first: a grieving man sets up an AI companion that becomes a lethal partner. The date slots it at the front of a thick month, with the Universal machine likely to replay uncanny live moments and brief clips that interlaces longing and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a branding reveal to become an event moment closer to the debut look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s releases are sold as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that reveals little and a second wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway creates space for Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, practical-first approach can feel prestige on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror blast that leans into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio lines up two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, carrying a bankable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is describing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both loyalists and newcomers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build assets around world-building, and monster aesthetics, elements that can boost premium screens and convention buzz.

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 carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by immersive craft and period language, this time orbiting lycan myth. The imprint has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is positive.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform plans for 2026 run on established tracks. The studio’s horror films move to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a cadence that enhances both first-week urgency and subscriber lifts in the late-window. Prime Video will mix catalogue additions with world buys and short theatrical plays when the data backs it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library pulls, using well-timed internal promotions, fright rows, and handpicked rows to maximize the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about original films and festival additions, timing horror entries near launch and staging as events arrivals with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a dual-phase of limited theatrical footprints and accelerated platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a selective basis. The platform has proven amenable to pick up select projects with acclaimed directors or star packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for platform stickiness when the genre conversation heats up.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 corridor with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is no-nonsense: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult click to read more touchstone, updated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the fall weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas corridor to increase reach. That positioning has been successful for arthouse horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception prompts. 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 in parallel, using targeted theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Known brands versus new stories

By tilt, the 2026 slate tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap marquee value. The potential drawback, as ever, is viewer burnout. The near-term solution is to brand each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and auteur plays keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the deal build is recognizable enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years clarify the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that respected streaming windows did not prevent a dual release from delivering when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror over-performed in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they alter lens and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to relate entries through character and theme and to keep assets alive without long breaks.

How the films are being made

The director conversations behind the 2026 slate suggest a continued emphasis on real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that foregrounds aura and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and department features before rolling out a tone piece that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and sparks shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature craft and set design, which work nicely for fan-con activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that highlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that shine in top rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is heavy. 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 quiet contrast amid bigger brand plays. The month ends 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 menu of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth holds.

Pre-summer months tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August and September into October leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited previews that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s intelligent companion escalates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 demanding boss push to survive on a remote island as the chain of command reverses and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to terror, founded on Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting setup that plays with the fear of a child’s inconsistent POV. Rating: pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A satirical comeback that satirizes in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime crazes. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new clan bound to old terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-first horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: not yet rated. 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 raw menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 and why now

Three hands-on forces frame this lineup. First, production that paused or recalendared in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate meme-ready beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can seize a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will line up across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, efficient screen counts, 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 visual texture, soundcraft, and imagery 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, Ready To Roar

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is name recognition where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, guard the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.