Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a pulse pounding shocker, premiering Oct 2025 on top streamers

This blood-curdling otherworldly suspense film from storyteller / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an prehistoric curse when newcomers become vehicles in a fiendish ritual. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful journey of perseverance and age-old darkness that will reshape genre cinema this ghoul season. Created by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and moody tale follows five characters who emerge ensnared in a wooded shelter under the sinister rule of Kyra, a young woman dominated by a two-thousand-year-old sacred-era entity. Ready yourself to be ensnared by a screen-based outing that combines gut-punch terror with legendary tales, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a time-honored narrative in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is twisted when the demons no longer come from a different plane, but rather internally. This embodies the most terrifying part of the cast. The result is a psychologically brutal internal warfare where the events becomes a unforgiving conflict between heaven and hell.


In a desolate woodland, five teens find themselves imprisoned under the malicious force and infestation of a elusive spirit. As the victims becomes incapacitated to combat her grasp, disconnected and followed by creatures impossible to understand, they are obligated to acknowledge their worst nightmares while the deathwatch brutally edges forward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear intensifies and relationships erode, pressuring each character to scrutinize their being and the philosophy of liberty itself. The stakes grow with every heartbeat, delivering a terror ride that blends otherworldly suspense with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to uncover deep fear, an darkness rooted in antiquity, emerging via our fears, and questioning a curse that redefines identity when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra involved tapping into something far beyond human desperation. She is blind until the demon emerges, and that transition is gut-wrenching because it is so personal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be released for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure users around the globe can experience this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original promo, which has pulled in over strong viewer count.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, presenting the nightmare to a global viewership.


Don’t miss this bone-rattling descent into hell. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to dive into these chilling revelations about the soul.


For behind-the-scenes access, production news, and updates from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across media channels and visit the film’s website.





American horror’s inflection point: 2025 in focus U.S. release slate interlaces archetypal-possession themes, signature indie scares, alongside returning-series thunder

From fight-to-live nightmare stories inspired by ancient scripture and including IP renewals set beside surgical indie voices, 2025 is tracking to be horror’s most layered plus calculated campaign year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. major banners plant stakes across the year with established lines, while streamers stack the fall with debut heat in concert with archetypal fear. In the indie lane, horror’s indie wing is surfing the afterglow of a peak 2024 circuit. Since Halloween is the prized date, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are exacting, accordingly 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

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

The top end is active. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal banner fires the first shot with an audacious swing: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. timed for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Guided by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer fades, the Warner Bros. banner launches the swan song from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re engages, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: period tinged dread, trauma as theme, along with eerie supernatural rules. The ante is higher this round, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It posts in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Firsts: Tight funds, wide impact

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a clever angle. No overstuffed canon. No IP hangover. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Heritage Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Signals and Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror swings back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival glow translates to 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.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The next genre lineup: entries, standalone ideas, plus A loaded Calendar geared toward Scares

Dek: The brand-new horror season lines up at the outset with a January logjam, thereafter stretches through the warm months, and deep into the holiday stretch, marrying brand heft, original angles, and tactical counter-scheduling. Distributors with platforms are embracing right-sized spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and buzz-forward plans that convert these pictures into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror marketplace has shown itself to be the most reliable swing in studio slates, a category that can scale when it hits and still protect the drawdown when it fails to connect. After 2023 proved to decision-makers that low-to-mid budget horror vehicles can galvanize social chatter, 2024 sustained momentum with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The upswing flowed into the 2025 frame, where returns and festival-grade titles confirmed there is space for many shades, from ongoing IP entries to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The net effect for 2026 is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across players, with planned clusters, a mix of legacy names and first-time concepts, and a recommitted attention on exhibition windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital rental and subscription services.

Marketers add the horror lane now serves as a utility player on the release plan. Horror can arrive on most weekends, deliver a simple premise for trailers and UGC-friendly snippets, and overperform with demo groups that appear on Thursday nights and sustain through the follow-up frame if the film fires. Following a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 cadence underscores comfort in that approach. The year begins with a crowded January corridor, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while clearing room for a September to October window that stretches into the Halloween corridor and into post-Halloween. The grid also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialized labels and digital platforms that can grow from platform, generate chatter, and go nationwide at the optimal moment.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across interlocking continuities and established properties. The players are not just greenlighting another follow-up. They are shaping as threaded continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a graphic identity that flags a fresh attitude or a casting choice that ties a next film to a early run. At the same time, the helmers behind the high-profile originals are doubling down on in-camera technique, practical gags and site-specific worlds. That convergence yields 2026 a confident blend of recognition and shock, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount establishes early momentum with two marquee pushes that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, framing it as both a succession moment and a back-to-basics relationship-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the narrative stance indicates a throwback-friendly approach without repeating the last two entries’ family thread. Expect a marketing push anchored in iconic art, first images of characters, and a promo sequence hitting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will stress. As a summer relief option, this one will seek mainstream recognition through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format enabling quick redirects to whatever owns the discourse that spring.

Universal has three clear projects. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is simple, soulful, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man installs an algorithmic mate that evolves into a dangerous lover. The date lines it up at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to revisit uncanny-valley stunts and short-cut promos that blurs affection and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a title reveal to become an event moment closer to the first trailer. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele projects are presented as signature events, with a minimalist tease and a second trailer wave that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-month date opens a lane to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has demonstrated that a raw, makeup-driven mix can feel top-tier on a lean spend. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror hit that leans into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, keeping a consistent supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is describing as a new foundation 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 directive to serve both core fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign pieces around canon, and creature work, elements that can lift deluxe auditorium demand and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on minute detail and period language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The company has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is favorable.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform tactics for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s releases transition to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that boosts both debut momentum and sign-up momentum in the later window. Prime Video balances library titles with world buys and select theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog engagement, using seasonal hubs, horror hubs, and staff picks to extend momentum on the annual genre haul. Netflix retains agility about internal projects and festival acquisitions, securing horror entries toward the drop and staging as events premieres with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a dual-phase of precision releases and short jumps to platform that converts WOM to subscribers. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a situational basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to purchase select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly activity when the genre conversation intensifies.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 runway with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is direct: the this contact form same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, elevated for modern sonics and picture. 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 positioned a theatrical rollout for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the October weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday frame to expand. That positioning has proved effective for prestige horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception merits. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

IP versus fresh ideas

By number, 2026 tips toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit marquee value. The risk, as ever, is overexposure. The workable fix is to sell each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is foregrounding character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is floating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a Francophone tone from a rising filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the packaging is recognizable enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

The last three-year set contextualize the strategy. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that maintained windows did not hamper a day-date move from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror punched above its weight in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they change perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues 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 back-to-back, permits marketing to thread films through character and theme and to maintain a flow of assets without doldrums.

Craft and creative trends

The craft conversations behind the year’s horror hint at a continued shift toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that underscores tone and tension rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft journalism and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and produces shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature work and production design, which play well in convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that sing on PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is stacked. 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 atmospheric change-up amid marquee brands. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the tonal variety carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Late Q1 and spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a early fall window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s essence. 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 synthetic partner grows into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shimmering 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 severe boss work to survive on a rugged island as the pecking order swivels and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fear, driven by Cronin’s practical effects and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 household haunting story that toys with the fear of a child’s shaky impressions. Rating: TBA. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-crafted and celebrity-led ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that teases contemporary horror memes and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further extends again, with a another family tethered to past horrors. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-first horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: to be announced. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBD. Production: active. 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-precise speech and primal menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces frame this lineup. First, production that eased or re-slotted in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work turnkey scare beats from test screenings, metered scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can command a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where value-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 leverage those opportunities. 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also my company supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, sound field, and camera work 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is franchise muscle where it helps, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.