Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across top digital platforms

This blood-curdling mystic terror film from storyteller / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an long-buried malevolence when unknowns become pawns in a demonic ordeal. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking account of living through and archaic horror that will resculpt scare flicks this scare season. Visualized by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and gothic story follows five strangers who arise locked in a unreachable hideaway under the hostile grip of Kyra, a female lead dominated by a time-worn biblical force. Prepare to be shaken by a narrative ride that fuses soul-chilling terror with legendary tales, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a long-standing foundation in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is reversed when the spirits no longer manifest from external sources, but rather through their own souls. This embodies the most primal version of the protagonists. The result is a enthralling mind game where the events becomes a constant conflict between right and wrong.


In a haunting wilderness, five young people find themselves sealed under the possessive control and inhabitation of a obscure spirit. As the protagonists becomes unresisting to resist her control, abandoned and hunted by entities inconceivable, they are required to endure their core terrors while the countdown ruthlessly runs out toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion deepens and friendships fracture, prompting each survivor to rethink their essence and the idea of conscious will itself. The pressure amplify with every instant, delivering a cinematic nightmare that marries demonic fright with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to uncover primitive panic, an evil that predates humanity, manipulating mental cracks, and exposing a presence that questions who we are when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra required summoning something deeper than fear. She is innocent until the haunting manifests, and that pivot is shocking because it is so raw.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be available for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing customers from coast to coast can witness this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its original promo, which has gathered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, offering the tale to a worldwide audience.


Don’t miss this heart-stopping exploration of dread. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to see these spiritual awakenings about the human condition.


For behind-the-scenes access, special features, and promotions from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Instagram and Twitter and visit our horror hub.





The horror genre’s tipping point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. release slate weaves legend-infused possession, Indie Shockers, together with legacy-brand quakes

Ranging from last-stand terror saturated with scriptural legend all the way to returning series together with surgical indie voices, 2025 looks like the most textured plus calculated campaign year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. leading studios set cornerstones using marquee IP, as streaming platforms crowd the fall with new perspectives alongside primordial unease. Across the art-house lane, the independent cohort is surfing the afterglow from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, though in this cycle, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are surgical, therefore 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s distribution arm begins the calendar with a risk-forward move: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a clear present-tense world. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. targeting mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer tapers, the WB camp launches the swan song within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson re boards, and the tone that worked before is intact: period tinged dread, trauma as narrative engine, with ghostly inner logic. This time the stakes climb, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The next entry deepens the tale, builds out the animatronic fear crew, courting teens and the thirty something base. It lands in December, buttoning the final window.

Digital Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a room scale body horror descent 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 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.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story with Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Conceived and directed by 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. 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 reads as sharp positioning. No bloated canon. No IP hangover. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Signals and Trends

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The next scare calendar year ahead: follow-ups, new stories, And A Crowded Calendar geared toward jolts

Dek: The emerging horror season packs up front with a January pile-up, from there rolls through peak season, and running into the winter holidays, weaving IP strength, new concepts, and data-minded counterplay. The major players are leaning into right-sized spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and shareable marketing that convert these releases into cross-demo moments.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The genre has solidified as the surest option in studio slates, a category that can surge when it performs and still limit the risk when it stumbles. After the 2023 year re-taught greenlighters that responsibly budgeted horror vehicles can dominate the discourse, the following year carried the beat with filmmaker-forward plays and quiet over-performers. The tailwind carried into the 2025 frame, where reboots and premium-leaning entries confirmed there is room for many shades, from continued chapters to non-IP projects that translate worldwide. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a programming that presents tight coordination across the industry, with intentional bunching, a pairing of marquee IP and new packages, and a refocused priority on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on premium video on demand and home platforms.

Schedulers say the horror lane now acts as a wildcard on the rollout map. The genre can kick off on a wide range of weekends, generate a simple premise for ad units and UGC-friendly snippets, and overperform with crowds that lean in on first-look nights and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the movie pays off. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 layout underscores faith in that engine. The slate launches with a stacked January corridor, then uses spring and early summer for audience offsets, while carving room for a late-year stretch that carries into the Halloween corridor and into early November. The program also shows the greater integration of specialized labels and OTT outlets that can platform a title, spark evangelism, and move wide at the sweet spot.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across linked properties and established properties. The players are not just pushing another continuation. They are shaping as story carry-over with a premium feel, whether that is a title design that suggests a tonal shift or a cast configuration that reconnects a latest entry to a heyday. At the alongside this, the helmers behind the high-profile originals are celebrating physical effects work, in-camera effects and location-forward worlds. That interplay delivers the 2026 slate a robust balance of home base and invention, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount plants an early flag with two big-ticket projects that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the spine, presenting it as both a relay and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach telegraphs a memory-charged treatment without replaying the last two entries’ sisters thread. Plan for a rollout leaning on heritage visuals, first images of characters, and a staggered trailer plan slated for late fall. Distribution is theatrical 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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a summer contrast play, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick redirects to whatever defines the discourse that spring.

Universal has three discrete strategies. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is crisp, heartbroken, and high-concept: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that turns into a murderous partner. The date puts it at the front of a stacked January, with marketing at Universal likely to echo odd public stunts and short reels that interweaves companionship and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a final title to become an event moment closer to the first trailer. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. The filmmaker’s films are presented as event films, with a minimalist tease and a later trailer push that shape mood without giving away the concept. The Halloween runway gives the studio room to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, practical-first approach can feel elevated on a controlled budget. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror jolt that spotlights worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio launches two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, sustaining a reliable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is selling as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both players and newcomers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build assets around canon, and monster aesthetics, elements that can boost deluxe auditorium demand and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by immersive craft and period language, this time set against lycan legends. The label has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform tactics for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal titles move to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ordering that maximizes both premiere heat and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed titles with worldwide buys and small theatrical windows when the data backs it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library pulls, using well-timed internal promotions, October hubs, and collection rows to prolong the run on aggregate take. Netflix keeps flexible about Netflix films and festival buys, dating horror entries tight to release and positioning as event drops arrivals with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and short jumps to platform that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to acquire select projects with top-tier auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly activity when the genre conversation swells.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 track with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is straightforward: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, refined for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the September weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, shepherding the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas corridor to scale. That positioning has proved effective for director-led genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception warrants. Be ready for 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 concert, using small theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subs.

Brands and originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate favors the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on name recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is fatigue. The workable fix is to present each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is bringing forward character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-tinted vision from a rising filmmaker. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays bring the oxygen. 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, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the configuration is anchored enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and early previews.

Three-year comps make sense of the method. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept streaming intact did not deter a day-and-date experiment from succeeding when the brand was big. In 2024, auteur craft horror hit big in premium screens. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to keep assets in-market without pause points.

Craft and creative trends

The craft conversations behind the upcoming entries telegraph a continued turn toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds mood and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the imp source big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and technical spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which work nicely for convention floor stunts and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel must-have. Look for trailers that highlight razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in big rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is crowded. Universal’s 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 gloomy counterbalance amid big-brand pushes. The month caps 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 stiff, but the mix of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Winter into spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder season window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s algorithmic partner mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 push to survive on a rugged island as the chain of command shifts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to nightmare, founded on Cronin’s in-camera craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting chiller that plays with the unease of a child’s unreliable senses. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-crafted and name-above-title paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that pokes at current genre trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: TBA. Production: lensing scheduled 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 breaks out, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a fresh family caught in long-buried horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: set for summer production targeting navigate here late-summer opening. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A new start designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-driven horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: undetermined. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 elemental menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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

Why the moment is 2026

Three practical forces organize this lineup. First, production that stalled or rearranged in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical 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 leverage repeatable beats from test screenings, managed scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can make hay in 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 deep PLF penetration 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. this content 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where modest-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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns 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 chilly, 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 ratchet upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor 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 dimensionality, audio design, 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.

2026 Looks Exciting

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand power where it counts, fresh vision where it counts, 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, craft precise trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.