Age-old Evil rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across major platforms

One terrifying mystic shockfest from writer / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an age-old entity when unfamiliar people become tokens in a malevolent ordeal. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving story of perseverance and primeval wickedness that will resculpt scare flicks this Halloween season. Brought to life by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and claustrophobic story follows five lost souls who suddenly rise trapped in a secluded wooden structure under the malignant sway of Kyra, a young woman inhabited by a legendary Old Testament spirit. Anticipate to be enthralled by a motion picture outing that blends gut-punch terror with ancestral stories, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a classic trope in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is inverted when the demons no longer come outside the characters, but rather from deep inside. This represents the most primal version of the protagonists. The result is a emotionally raw mental war where the story becomes a intense conflict between divinity and wickedness.


In a remote backcountry, five friends find themselves contained under the malicious grip and grasp of a mysterious female presence. As the companions becomes powerless to reject her control, left alone and tracked by beings beyond reason, they are made to wrestle with their darkest emotions while the time without pity draws closer toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion grows and connections splinter, prompting each survivor to rethink their identity and the principle of autonomy itself. The stakes escalate with every second, delivering a terror ride that combines occult fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to explore basic terror, an curse rooted in antiquity, filtering through fragile psyche, and testing a evil that redefines identity when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra required summoning something rooted in terror. She is ignorant until the evil takes hold, and that transformation is soul-crushing because it is so private.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing households worldwide can witness this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its original promo, which has been viewed over 100,000 views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, spreading the horror to horror fans worldwide.


Tune in for this gripping voyage through terror. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to face these ghostly lessons about existence.


For behind-the-scenes access, filmmaker commentary, and insider scoops from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across your favorite networks and visit the movie portal.





The horror genre’s Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. lineup weaves old-world possession, underground frights, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Running from pressure-cooker survival tales saturated with legendary theology and stretching into series comebacks in concert with incisive indie visions, 2025 appears poised to be the most variegated in tandem with tactically planned year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Top studios stabilize the year through proven series, even as streamers saturate the fall with discovery plays as well as archetypal fear. Across the art-house lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is drafting behind the uplift of 2024’s record festival wave. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A fat September–October lane is customary now, distinctly in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are methodical, as a result 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige fear returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s distribution arm lights the fuse with a marquee bet: a contemporary Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a sharp contemporary setting. Steered by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Under Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

At summer’s close, Warner’s slate delivers the closing chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson is back, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retrograde shiver, trauma explicitly handled, and eerie supernatural logic. This time the stakes climb, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The continuation widens the legend, builds out the animatronic fear crew, courting teens and the thirty something base. It arrives in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Penned and steered 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 the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, 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.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. That is a savvy move. No swollen lore. No IP hangover. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Heritage Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. 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.

Trend Lines

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forecast: 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 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. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The new fear Year Ahead: next chapters, original films, alongside A Crowded Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek The fresh genre season crowds early with a January logjam, subsequently stretches through the warm months, and carrying into the December corridor, balancing name recognition, fresh ideas, and tactical offsets. Studios and streamers are prioritizing lean spends, theatrical exclusivity first, and viral-minded pushes that turn these releases into cross-demo moments.

Where horror stands going into 2026

Horror has become the surest play in release plans, a category that can grow when it performs and still safeguard the floor when it doesn’t. After 2023 showed strategy teams that disciplined-budget scare machines can own the discourse, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with filmmaker-forward plays and sleeper breakouts. The upswing extended into 2025, where revived properties and elevated films highlighted there is capacity for a spectrum, from series extensions to non-IP projects that travel well. The upshot for 2026 is a roster that is strikingly coherent across the market, with clear date clusters, a mix of familiar brands and fresh ideas, and a recommitted emphasis on theatrical windows that boost PVOD and platform value on PVOD and home streaming.

Schedulers say the genre now slots in as a schedule utility on the programming map. The genre can arrive on nearly any frame, generate a grabby hook for trailers and vertical videos, and overperform with moviegoers that lean in on early shows and stay strong through the week two if the entry connects. Coming out of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence demonstrates conviction in that logic. The slate opens with a front-loaded January band, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while making space for a October build that connects to the Halloween frame and into early November. The gridline also highlights the expanded integration of specialized imprints and streamers that can platform and widen, ignite recommendations, and go nationwide at the proper time.

Another broad trend is IP stewardship across connected story worlds and established properties. The companies are not just producing another chapter. They are moving to present ongoing narrative with a marquee sheen, whether that is a art treatment that indicates a recalibrated tone or a casting choice that links a incoming chapter to a heyday. At the concurrently, the auteurs behind the marquee originals are returning to practical craft, practical gags and grounded locations. That convergence hands 2026 a lively combination of known notes and invention, which is what works overseas.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount leads early with two marquee bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the heart, marketing it as both a passing of the torch and a rootsy relationship-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the authorial approach indicates a memory-charged campaign without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign fueled by signature symbols, early character teases, and a tiered teaser plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will double down on. As a summer contrast play, this one will generate mass reach through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick turns to whatever drives the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three unique strategies. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is crisp, somber, and premise-first: a grieving man installs an machine companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to replay eerie street stunts and short-form creative that threads devotion and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a title drop to become an fan moment closer to the first trailer. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele titles are branded as director events, with a minimalist tease and a later creative that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor affords Universal to own 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has proven that a in-your-face, practical-effects forward execution can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Expect a hard-R summer horror blast that centers worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, maintaining a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is framing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both fans and newcomers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around world-building, and creature effects, elements that can fuel premium format interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror driven by textural authenticity and dialect, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform tactics for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ladder that amplifies both premiere heat and sign-up momentum in the later window. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with world buys and limited runs in theaters when the data supports it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog engagement, using curated hubs, seasonal hubs, and curated strips to maximize the tail on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival deals, confirming horror entries with shorter lead times and making event-like premieres with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a dual-phase of precision releases and prompt platform moves that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has indicated interest to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for sustained usage when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is mapping 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 proposition is simple: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, upgraded for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late stretch.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, piloting the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then working the December frame to increase reach. That positioning has worked well for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception prompts. Be ready for 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 as a pair, using select theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subs.

IP versus fresh ideas

By proportion, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is fatigue. The practical approach is to brand each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is foregrounding character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-tinted vision from a ascendant talent. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the packaging is steady enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Three-year comps make sense of the model. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that preserved streaming windows did not block a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was robust. In 2024, auteur craft horror hit big in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel new when they change perspective and stretch the story. 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 double feature plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, enables marketing to tie installments through character and theme and to continue assets in field without extended gaps.

How the films are being made

The craft rooms behind the upcoming entries suggest a continued move toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that highlights aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in deep-dive features and artisan spotlights before rolling out a preview that keeps plot minimal, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta pivot that centers an original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster aesthetics and world-building, which lend themselves to con floor moments and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that foreground fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that shine in top rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is full. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the menu of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Winter into spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into 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 spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and his comment is here animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited teasers that trade in concept over detail.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card burn.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s algorithmic partner escalates into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

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 stumble upon a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 fight to survive on a desolate island as the pecking order inverts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 disclosed in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to chill, driven by Cronin’s on-set craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting premise that explores the panic of a child’s inconsistent senses. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed and headline-actor led paranormal 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 reboot that skewers hot-button genre motifs and true-crime crazes. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites bursts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a different family lashed to long-buried horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: pending. Production: proceeding. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 language and elemental dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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

Why the 2026 timing works

Three operational forces inform this lineup. First, production that downshifted or migrated in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more strict 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 debuts. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, curated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

The slot calculus is real. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will trade weekends across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper-hit hunt 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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, acoustics, and cinematography 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand heft where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.