Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on top streamers

One unnerving spiritual shockfest from writer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an primordial horror when unknowns become tools in a devilish struggle. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful journey of perseverance and forgotten curse that will reimagine fear-driven cinema this October. Directed by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and emotionally thick story follows five strangers who arise sealed in a far-off shelter under the ominous influence of Kyra, a female lead haunted by a biblical-era biblical demon. Be prepared to be gripped by a narrative journey that combines visceral dread with folklore, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a iconic element in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is subverted when the demons no longer arise outside the characters, but rather inside them. This suggests the most hidden dimension of every character. The result is a gripping cognitive warzone where the tension becomes a brutal face-off between divinity and wickedness.


In a wilderness-stricken landscape, five young people find themselves sealed under the ominous dominion and overtake of a shadowy spirit. As the cast becomes unable to withstand her dominion, disconnected and tormented by unknowns beyond reason, they are forced to reckon with their soulful dreads while the clock coldly edges forward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease deepens and ties implode, forcing each person to contemplate their personhood and the foundation of decision-making itself. The consequences magnify with every breath, delivering a nightmarish journey that combines otherworldly panic with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to extract deep fear, an power that existed before mankind, manifesting in human fragility, and testing a darkness that strips down our being when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra was centered on something unfamiliar to reason. She is in denial until the takeover begins, and that metamorphosis is eerie because it is so personal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering streamers from coast to coast can face this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its intro video, which has received over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, spreading the horror to scare fans abroad.


Make sure to see this unforgettable descent into darkness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to face these evil-rooted truths about inner darkness.


For bonus footage, director cuts, and reveals directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your favorite networks and visit our horror hub.





Contemporary horror’s tipping point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. Slate Mixes Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, alongside series shake-ups

Kicking off with life-or-death fear saturated with mythic scripture through to returning series set beside focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as the genre’s most multifaceted in tandem with calculated campaign year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. major banners plant stakes across the year through proven series, in parallel premium streamers crowd the fall with fresh voices plus scriptural shivers. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is fueled by the uplift of 2024’s record festival wave. Since Halloween is the prized date, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The fall stretch is the proving field, and in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are surgical, hence 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are assertive. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal camp lights the fuse with an audacious swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. arriving mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

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

When summer fades, Warner Bros. sets loose the finale inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and those signature textures resurface: retro dread, trauma as narrative engine, along with eerie supernatural rules. The bar is raised this go, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It lands in December, locking down the winter tail.

Digital Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

More contained by design is Together, a body horror duet including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

On the docket is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No swollen lore. No brand fatigue. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Series Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, under Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. 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
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror ascends again
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Outlook: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The forthcoming 2026 chiller year to come: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, alongside A busy Calendar aimed at nightmares

Dek: The brand-new genre year crowds from the jump with a January traffic jam, then runs through the warm months, and far into the holiday frame, combining name recognition, creative pitches, and shrewd calendar placement. Studio marketers and platforms are leaning into mid-range economics, cinema-first plans, and influencer-ready assets that elevate these offerings into mainstream chatter.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has emerged as the bankable option in annual schedules, a category that can expand when it lands and still buffer the floor when it under-delivers. After 2023 demonstrated to greenlighters that cost-conscious fright engines can shape cultural conversation, the following year carried the beat with signature-voice projects and unexpected risers. The energy moved into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and critical darlings demonstrated there is capacity for multiple flavors, from sequel tracks to original features that carry overseas. The combined impact for 2026 is a run that appears tightly organized across the field, with purposeful groupings, a spread of household franchises and original hooks, and a sharpened eye on big-screen windows that power the aftermarket on premium video on demand and subscription services.

Planners observe the genre now serves as a utility player on the grid. Horror can debut on many corridors, generate a quick sell for trailers and short-form placements, and outperform with moviegoers that arrive on previews Thursday and continue through the next pass if the title hits. Exiting a work stoppage lag, the 2026 layout signals confidence in that equation. The calendar kicks off with a thick January corridor, then uses spring and early summer for audience offsets, while clearing room for a October build that stretches into the fright window and into post-Halloween. The layout also features the ongoing integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and broaden at the precise moment.

A notable top-line trend is IP stewardship across linked properties and established properties. Big banners are not just turning out another installment. They are seeking to position story carry-over with a specialness, whether that is a art treatment that announces a fresh attitude or a ensemble decision that connects a fresh chapter to a classic era. At the very same time, the filmmakers behind the most anticipated originals are returning to real-world builds, on-set effects and location-forward worlds. That interplay offers the 2026 slate a solid mix of familiarity and discovery, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount plants an early flag with two centerpiece pushes that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the focus, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance points to a memory-charged strategy without repeating the last two entries’ sisters thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive built on franchise iconography, early character teases, and a tease cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will chase general-audience talk through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format making room for quick updates to whatever dominates the conversation that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is crisp, somber, and big-hook: a grieving man purchases an virtual partner that shifts into a killer companion. The date puts it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s campaign likely to renew off-kilter promo beats and quick hits that interlaces love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title reveal to become an fan moment closer to the first trailer. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are treated as event films, with a hinting teaser and a second wave of trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The Halloween runway lets the studio to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, practical-first mix can feel high-value on a tight budget. Position this as a splatter summer horror rush that leans hard into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio lines up two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, sustaining a evergreen supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is describing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar check over here part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around setting detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive 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 carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror built on obsessive craft and historical speech, this time set against lycan legends. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Digital strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal titles shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that amplifies both premiere heat and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video pairs licensed content with worldwide entries and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in back-catalog play, using well-timed internal promotions, seasonal hubs, and editorial rows to sustain interest on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps options open about internal projects and festival deals, dating horror entries on shorter runways and turning into events arrivals with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a one-two of selective theatrical runs and speedy platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown a willingness to board select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is no-nonsense: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, upgraded for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the October weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas corridor to broaden. That positioning has been successful for director-led genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception supports. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited runs to ignite evangelism that fuels their community.

Legacy titles versus originals

By tilt, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The concern, as ever, is brand wear. The workable fix is to present each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is underscoring relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-accented approach from this contact form a breakout filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the bundle is recognizable enough to build pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Rolling three-year comps help explain the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept streaming intact did not block a same-day experiment from performing when the brand was trusted. In 2024, precision craft horror outperformed in premium formats. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reorient and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, provides the means for marketing to tie installments through protagonists and motifs and to keep materials circulating without dead zones.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The shop talk behind the year’s horror signal a continued shift toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that emphasizes creep and texture rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-true language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead features and department features before rolling out a tone piece that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gross-out texture, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and produces shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta inflection that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster realization and design, which play well in con floor moments and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that spotlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that sing on PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is heavy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th check over here Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the tonal variety opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Pre-summer months seed summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil follows September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited asset reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card use.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s virtual companion unfolds into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss struggle to survive on a uninhabited island as the power dynamic tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to nightmare, built on Cronin’s in-camera craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting premise that routes the horror through a youth’s shifting personal vantage. Rating: not yet rated. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-crafted and celebrity-led ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A satirical comeback that lampoons current genre trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 surges, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further extends again, with a unlucky family entangled with long-buried horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-first horror over action spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBA. 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 era-accurate language and primal menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three execution-level forces inform this lineup. First, production that stalled or migrated in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest repeatable beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth factor is programming math. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, making room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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. 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout 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. Anticipate a robust 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, disciplined footprints, 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 visual texture, audio design, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand heft where it matters, auteur intent 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, craft precise trailers, lock the reveals, and let the scares sell the seats.