Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primordial evil, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 on premium platforms

One spine-tingling paranormal suspense film from literary architect / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an primordial terror when unfamiliar people become pawns in a supernatural struggle. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving episode of perseverance and primeval wickedness that will alter scare flicks this October. Visualized by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and emotionally thick feature follows five young adults who regain consciousness stuck in a isolated structure under the malevolent will of Kyra, a haunted figure haunted by a time-worn religious nightmare. Get ready to be ensnared by a theatrical experience that integrates instinctive fear with timeless legends, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a mainstay tradition in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is radically shifted when the spirits no longer arise from an outside force, but rather inside their minds. This symbolizes the most terrifying layer of the players. The result is a gripping mental war where the narrative becomes a intense clash between purity and corruption.


In a abandoned forest, five young people find themselves contained under the possessive sway and curse of a elusive figure. As the ensemble becomes defenseless to oppose her will, isolated and preyed upon by spirits unfathomable, they are cornered to face their greatest panics while the timeline mercilessly draws closer toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety deepens and ties break, prompting each figure to rethink their existence and the idea of free will itself. The danger intensify with every passing moment, delivering a fear-soaked story that intertwines otherworldly suspense with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to uncover basic terror, an force before modern man, feeding on fragile psyche, and dealing with a darkness that challenges autonomy when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra involved tapping into something far beyond human desperation. She is unaware until the invasion happens, and that change is harrowing because it is so private.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing watchers worldwide can enjoy this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first preview, which has garnered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, exporting the fear to international horror buffs.


Witness this heart-stopping trip into the unknown. Enter *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to witness these dark realities about the human condition.


For film updates, filmmaker commentary, and insider scoops straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across fan hubs and visit our horror hub.





The horror genre’s sea change: calendar year 2025 U.S. rollouts fuses biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, plus franchise surges

Spanning pressure-cooker survival tales drawn from near-Eastern lore as well as franchise returns paired with pointed art-house angles, 2025 stands to become the most variegated and calculated campaign year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio majors stabilize the year with known properties, while digital services pack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs together with mythic dread. In parallel, independent banners is buoyed by the tailwinds from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, distinctly in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are intentional, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium genre swings back

The top end is active. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal fires the first shot with a big gambit: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. targeting 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 adaptation turned minimalist horror show. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside 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 festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer tapers, the WB camp sets loose the finale of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: old school creep, trauma as text, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time, the stakes are raised, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, builds out the animatronic fear crew, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It bows in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Tight funds, wide impact

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a two hander body horror spiral anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story starring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It looks like sharp programming. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

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

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. 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 framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Signals and Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

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

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Season Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

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 coming 2026 terror slate: follow-ups, universe starters, plus A jammed Calendar geared toward jolts

Dek The upcoming scare calendar packs early with a January crush, then carries through the warm months, and straight through the holidays, fusing name recognition, new concepts, and calculated alternatives. Major distributors and platforms are focusing on tight budgets, cinema-first plans, and social-driven marketing that position the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The genre has emerged as the surest swing in distribution calendars, a space that can scale when it hits and still insulate the downside when it doesn’t. After 2023 signaled to executives that mid-range entries can galvanize audience talk, 2024 extended the rally with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The energy translated to 2025, where legacy revivals and premium-leaning entries proved there is appetite for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to non-IP projects that carry overseas. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a slate that reads highly synchronized across studios, with mapped-out bands, a equilibrium of recognizable IP and original hooks, and a reinvigorated attention on release windows that feed downstream value on premium on-demand and subscription services.

Studio leaders note the category now works like a wildcard on the grid. Horror can bow on many corridors, create a clean hook for previews and short-form placements, and overperform with audiences that come out on Thursday previews and stay strong through the next pass if the release lands. Emerging from a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 pattern shows comfort in that setup. The slate commences with a front-loaded January corridor, then turns to spring and early summer for contrast, while holding room for a fall run that pushes into the Halloween frame and past the holiday. The arrangement also illustrates the expanded integration of boutique distributors and platforms that can grow from platform, build word of mouth, and widen at the proper time.

Another broad trend is IP stewardship across linked properties and long-running brands. Studios are not just mounting another chapter. They are aiming to frame ongoing narrative with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title design that indicates a refreshed voice or a ensemble decision that links a latest entry to a classic era. At the meanwhile, the auteurs behind the marquee originals are championing physical effects work, practical effects and concrete locations. That interplay affords the 2026 slate a solid mix of known notes and freshness, which is what works overseas.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount plants an early flag with two big-ticket projects that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, presenting it as both a lineage transfer and a rootsy character-forward chapter. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the tonal posture suggests a fan-service aware mode without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push centered on recognizable motifs, intro reveals, and a tiered teaser plan hitting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will stress. As a summer contrast play, this one will go after wide buzz through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever rules trend lines that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is efficient, soulful, and premise-first: a grieving man activates an machine companion that becomes a fatal companion. The date locates it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on creepy live activations and short-cut promos that threads devotion and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele titles are presented as creative events, with a concept-forward tease and a second wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The prime October weekend affords Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a gnarly, physical-effects centered aesthetic can feel premium on a middle budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror surge that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio launches two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is selling as a reset 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 clearer mandate to serve both devotees and new audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build promo materials around canon, and creature design, elements that can accelerate IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in minute detail and period language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is supportive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that fortifies both launch urgency and trial spikes in the later phase. Prime Video stitches together licensed titles with cross-border buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, Halloween hubs, and curated rows to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about own-slate titles and festival additions, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and coalescing around go-lives with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a hybrid of targeted cinema placements and prompt platform moves that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a situational basis. The platform has proven amenable to secure select projects with acclaimed directors or name-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 corridor with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is no-nonsense: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, reimagined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a theatrical-first plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late-season weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then using the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has paid off for arthouse horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using targeted theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on household recognition. The caveat, as ever, is overexposure. The pragmatic answer is to present each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-accented approach from a ascendant talent. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

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

Three-year comps outline the plan. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not deter a simultaneous release test from thriving when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror hit big in PLF. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, provides the means for marketing to interlace chapters through personae and themes and to keep assets alive without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this year’s genre indicate a continued shift toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that emphasizes tone and tension rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft journalism and guild coverage before rolling out a tease that withholds plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-aware reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster realization and design, which favor fan conventions and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that play in premium auditoriums.

How the year maps out

January is packed. 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 larger brand plays. The month winds down 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 real, but the tonal variety carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts 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 aligned with genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand my company has previously clicked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card burn.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s digital partner mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: gothic-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 hard-edged boss push to survive on a uninhabited island as the control balance tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to menace, founded on Cronin’s material craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting setup that manipulates the terror of a child’s uncertain perspective. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-grade and A-list fronted ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A genre lampoon that pokes at current genre trends and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Production: filming slated 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 erupts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a different family lashed to long-buried horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-driven horror over action spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 menace. Rating: pending. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 lands now

Three hands-on forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or reshuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter schedules. 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 beaten straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth factor is programming math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will coexist across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 cost-efficient 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 stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, 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 momentum and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 somber, 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 compound over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundcraft, 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.

2026 Looks Exciting

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is name recognition where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.