Antediluvian Evil Stirs in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising thriller, bowing October 2025 across premium platforms

This spine-tingling supernatural fright fest from creator / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an ancient curse when guests become puppets in a hellish experiment. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving saga of struggle and ancient evil that will redefine fear-driven cinema this cool-weather season. Realized by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and eerie motion picture follows five unknowns who snap to trapped in a cut-off cabin under the hostile will of Kyra, a troubled woman occupied by a legendary Old Testament spirit. Be warned to be gripped by a audio-visual presentation that melds primitive horror with legendary tales, arriving on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a legendary foundation in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is twisted when the monsters no longer manifest from an outside force, but rather deep within. This depicts the malevolent shade of the cast. The result is a bone-chilling spiritual tug-of-war where the story becomes a brutal clash between right and wrong.


In a wilderness-stricken wilderness, five adults find themselves isolated under the unholy control and possession of a elusive woman. As the companions becomes submissive to escape her dominion, cut off and attacked by creatures beyond reason, they are required to reckon with their darkest emotions while the timeline unforgivingly ticks onward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion escalates and ties shatter, demanding each cast member to contemplate their being and the notion of independent thought itself. The stakes amplify with every instant, delivering a terror ride that merges occult fear with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to dive into core terror, an force beyond recorded history, channeling itself through our fears, and dealing with a force that threatens selfhood when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra meant channeling something beyond human emotion. She is unaware until the spirit seizes her, and that conversion is soul-crushing because it is so deep.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be available for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing households worldwide can face this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first trailer, which has attracted over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, delivering the story to a global viewership.


Mark your calendar for this life-altering descent into hell. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to survive these nightmarish insights about free will.


For sneak peeks, production news, and promotions from those who lived it, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across fan hubs and visit the film’s website.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: 2025 for genre fans U.S. Slate fuses myth-forward possession, festival-born jolts, plus franchise surges

Across grit-forward survival fare infused with near-Eastern lore to IP renewals in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the richest along with intentionally scheduled year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Major studios bookend the months with franchise anchors, in tandem streamers front-load the fall with unboxed visions plus ancestral chills. In parallel, independent banners is fueled by the backdraft from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, but this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, thus 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige fear returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal banner sets the tone with an audacious swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a clear present-tense world. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Led by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

When summer fades, Warner’s pipeline sets loose the finale of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson returns, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: nostalgic menace, trauma driven plotting, plus otherworld rules that chill. The bar is raised this go, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The follow up digs further into canon, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It arrives in December, holding the cold season’s end.

SVOD Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a body horror chamber piece starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend starring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy 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. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into 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.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No puffed out backstory. No brand fatigue. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Outlook: Fall pileup, winter curveball

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

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The oncoming Horror Year Ahead: continuations, universe starters, as well as A jammed Calendar optimized for frights

Dek The current terror season packs in short order with a January bottleneck, before it spreads through the summer months, and well into the holidays, fusing series momentum, untold stories, and savvy release strategy. Studios with streamers are leaning into responsible budgets, box-office-first windows, and shareable marketing that transform these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the steady swing in studio lineups, a category that can expand when it lands and still cushion the liability when it stumbles. After 2023 signaled to strategy teams that modestly budgeted fright engines can steer mainstream conversation, 2024 held pace with filmmaker-forward plays and sleeper breakouts. The run translated to 2025, where revived properties and filmmaker-prestige bets proved there is an opening for several lanes, from brand follow-ups to non-IP projects that perform internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a roster that seems notably aligned across the market, with purposeful groupings, a spread of established brands and original hooks, and a reinvigorated eye on exhibition windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and digital services.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now operates like a wildcard on the distribution slate. Horror can open on almost any weekend, yield a easy sell for teasers and shorts, and exceed norms with viewers that turn out on preview nights and return through the next weekend if the picture connects. After a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 cadence demonstrates assurance in that approach. The calendar rolls out with a heavy January block, then leans on spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while keeping space for a fall run that pushes into the fright window and into early November. The layout also includes the continuing integration of arthouse labels and home platforms that can launch in limited release, ignite recommendations, and scale up at the proper time.

Another broad trend is brand curation across shared universes and classic IP. Major shops are not just pushing another return. They are working to present threaded continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that signals a refreshed voice or a star attachment that ties a new entry to a classic era. At the very same time, the creative leads behind the most anticipated originals are embracing practical craft, special makeup and site-specific worlds. That alloy offers 2026 a smart balance of recognition and novelty, which is the formula for international play.

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

Paramount sets the tone early with two marquee plays that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the spine, framing it as both a handoff and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. Production is active in Atlanta, and the authorial approach suggests a throwback-friendly framework without looping the last two entries’ family thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive centered on franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a promo sequence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will double down on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will seek general-audience talk through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format supporting quick shifts to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three differentiated bets. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is straightforward, somber, and high-concept: a grieving man adopts an synthetic partner that unfolds into a killer companion. The date slots it at the front of a busy month, with the marketing arm likely to recreate uncanny-valley stunts and short-form creative that interlaces intimacy and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a branding reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the opening teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele projects are sold as marquee events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second beat that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-October frame affords Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has long shown that a gnarly, practical-effects forward style can feel deluxe on a tight budget. Position this as a red-band summer horror jolt that maximizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending a steady supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is calling a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both loyalists and casuals. The fall slot hands Sony window to build promo materials around world-building, and creature work, elements that can boost large-format demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror centered on textural authenticity and period speech, this time exploring werewolf lore. The specialty arm has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform tactics for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal titles window into copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a structure that enhances both opening-weekend urgency and viewer acquisition in the later phase. Prime Video stitches together library titles with global pickups and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library pulls, using editorial spots, genre hubs, and collection rows to extend momentum on the annual genre haul. Netflix remains opportunistic about originals and festival buys, timing horror entries tight to release and elevating as drops debuts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a two-step of selective theatrical runs and speedy platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will prove important 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+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with name filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for sustained usage when the genre conversation heats up.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 slate 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 sell is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the September weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has paid off for prestige horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception drives. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited runs to seed evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchise entries versus originals

By skew, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap cultural cachet. The challenge, as ever, is diminishing returns. The pragmatic answer is to sell each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is elevating character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a new voice. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and visionary-led titles keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the bundle is known enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps announce the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept clean windows did not stop a parallel release from paying off when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror surged in PLF. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they angle differently and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds 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 character arcs and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without doldrums.

How the look and feel evolve

The filmmaking conversations behind 2026 horror suggest a continued emphasis on tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror 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 moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that highlights grain and menace rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a initial teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta-horror reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster realization and design, which work nicely for convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel key. Look for trailers that elevate pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in premium houses.

Release calendar overview

January is stacked. 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 quiet contrast amid bigger brand plays. The month closes 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 formidable, but the tone spread ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

February through May tee up summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now accommodates 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

August and September into October leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a minimalist tease strategy and limited previews that put concept first.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s machine mate grows into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 prickly boss scramble to survive on a uninhabited island as the power dynamic flips and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to horror, founded on Cronin’s material craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 home-set haunting premise that leverages the horror of a child’s shaky interpretations. Rating: pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-grade and star-led spirit-world suspense.

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 return that riffs on of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime buzz. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a different family caught in residual nightmares. Rating: TBA. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: to be announced. Production: in progress. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 elemental fear. Rating: forthcoming. 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 in flux, fall expected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three pragmatic forces structure this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-slotted in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine social-ready stingers from test screenings, metered scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will coexist across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 disciplined-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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, soundscape, 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is recognizable IP where it plays, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job news is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.