Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a bone chilling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

This bone-chilling supernatural shockfest from screenwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an primordial malevolence when unfamiliar people become tools in a cursed maze. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a intense story of resistance and primordial malevolence that will reshape the fear genre this Halloween season. Directed by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and claustrophobic film follows five young adults who awaken imprisoned in a wooded structure under the malignant will of Kyra, a young woman overtaken by a two-thousand-year-old scriptural evil. Get ready to be shaken by a motion picture presentation that weaves together primitive horror with mythic lore, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a iconic motif in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is subverted when the fiends no longer manifest from external sources, but rather within themselves. This suggests the most hidden facet of every character. The result is a bone-chilling mind game where the narrative becomes a unforgiving fight between heaven and hell.


In a abandoned wilderness, five teens find themselves imprisoned under the possessive aura and grasp of a haunted spirit. As the group becomes helpless to fight her command, disconnected and hunted by evils beyond comprehension, they are made to endure their deepest fears while the deathwatch without pity ticks onward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion escalates and connections erode, demanding each soul to contemplate their values and the foundation of self-determination itself. The hazard escalate with every short lapse, delivering a nightmarish journey that blends supernatural terror with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to dive into primal fear, an curse before modern man, working through our fears, and exposing a power that forces self-examination when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra meant evoking something far beyond human desperation. She is clueless until the curse activates, and that transformation is terrifying because it is so personal.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for streaming beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing watchers globally can experience this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its intro video, which has seen over 100K plays.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, exporting the fear to a worldwide audience.


Make sure to see this cinematic journey into fear. Face *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to witness these haunting secrets about human nature.


For previews, special features, and reveals via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across media channels and visit our horror hub.





Horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 season U.S. Slate integrates biblical-possession ideas, Indie Shockers, plus returning-series thunder

From fight-to-live nightmare stories saturated with ancient scripture all the way to series comebacks alongside surgical indie voices, 2025 looks like the most stratified together with strategic year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Major studios are anchoring the year with familiar IP, simultaneously premium streamers saturate the fall with emerging auteurs in concert with ancestral chills. On the festival side, independent banners is riding the afterglow from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are methodical, hence 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: High-craft horror returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal camp fires the first shot with a big gambit: a refashioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a crisp modern milieu. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. timed for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. From director Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer winds down, the Warner Bros. banner unveils the final movement within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson returns, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: throwback unease, trauma as text, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The return delves further into myth, thickens the animatronic pantheon, speaking to teens and older millennials. It drops in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold case horror anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a close quarters body horror study featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to 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 chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No bloated mythology. No series drag. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

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 bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Brands: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trend Lines

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror resurges
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. 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 aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The forthcoming 2026 scare slate: installments, original films, alongside A jammed Calendar calibrated for Scares

Dek: The fresh scare year builds from the jump with a January cluster, then spreads through the mid-year, and continuing into the year-end corridor, combining name recognition, new voices, and shrewd release strategy. The major players are doubling down on responsible budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and buzz-forward plans that convert genre releases into all-audience topics.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The genre has proven to be the dependable move in programming grids, a genre that can accelerate when it clicks and still protect the liability when it doesn’t. After 2023 signaled to strategy teams that low-to-mid budget shockers can command pop culture, 2024 maintained heat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and quiet over-performers. The momentum extended into the 2025 frame, where reboots and awards-minded projects proved there is an opening for a spectrum, from legacy continuations to standalone ideas that translate worldwide. The result for 2026 is a roster that seems notably aligned across the field, with defined corridors, a harmony of recognizable IP and new pitches, and a refocused commitment on exhibition windows that boost PVOD and platform value on PVOD and subscription services.

Marketers add the space now slots in as a schedule utility on the grid. Horror can kick off on almost any weekend, deliver a clean hook for ad units and UGC-friendly snippets, and lead with ticket buyers that line up on opening previews and hold through the second weekend if the entry lands. Post a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 setup exhibits certainty in that setup. The calendar commences with a weighty January lineup, then primes spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while saving space for a autumn push that runs into All Hallows period and beyond. The map also includes the increasing integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can build gradually, ignite recommendations, and scale up at the inflection point.

A parallel macro theme is brand curation across interlocking continuities and heritage properties. Studio teams are not just releasing another sequel. They are working to present story carry-over with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that conveys a refreshed voice or a ensemble decision that links a fresh chapter to a original cycle. At the simultaneously, the auteurs behind the high-profile originals are prioritizing tactile craft, practical effects and vivid settings. That blend offers the 2026 slate a smart balance of known notes and surprise, which is how the films export.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount fires first with two front-of-slate projects that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the lead, setting it up as both a passing of the torch and a return-to-roots character-focused installment. Production is active in Atlanta, and the artistic posture suggests a classic-referencing framework without covering again the last two entries’ sisters thread. Count on a promo wave anchored in signature symbols, character-first teases, and a tease cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will emphasize. As a counterweight in summer, this one will seek wide buzz through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever drives horror talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is clean, loss-driven, and logline-clear: a grieving man sets up an synthetic partner that unfolds into a killer companion. The date slots it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and short-cut promos that interlaces affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio great post to read books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under code names 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 proper title to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele projects are positioned as auteur events, with a minimalist tease and a second wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-month date opens a lane to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy aesthetic can feel premium on a efficient spend. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror charge that spotlights global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio places two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a dependable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is marketing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both loyalists and novices. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around narrative world, and practical creature work, elements that can drive IMAX and PLF uptake and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by careful craft and historical speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The distributor has already set the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform plans for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s genre entries shift to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that fortifies both first-week urgency and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends licensed titles with cross-border buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog discovery, using prominent placements, Halloween hubs, and handpicked rows to prolong the run on the horror cume. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival pickups, dating horror entries near launch and framing as events debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation spikes.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 track with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is no-nonsense: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, upgraded for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday slot to broaden. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-first 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 commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception prompts. Do not be surprised by 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 together, using select theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their user base.

Series vs standalone

By weight, 2026 is weighted Young & Cursed toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on brand equity. The risk, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to sell each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is emphasizing core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a continental coloration from a emerging director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the configuration is assuring enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Comparable trends from recent years illuminate the plan. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not stop a day-date try from working when the brand was strong. In 2024, precision craft horror popped in large-format rooms. 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 moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot in tandem, permits marketing to relate entries through personae and themes and to keep assets alive without hiatuses.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind this slate forecast a continued bias 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 accords with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights atmosphere and fear rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for textured sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in feature stories and artisan spotlights before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature and environment design, which favor booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel key. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that work in PLF.

Month-by-month map

January is loaded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser 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 meaningful, but the spread of tones creates a lane for each, and the More about the author five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late Q1 and spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

August into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder season window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited asset reveals that center concept over reveals.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and holiday card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s virtual companion mutates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: atmospheric 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 demanding boss try to survive on a cut-off island as the chain of command upends and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to horror, driven by Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting story that refracts terror through a kid’s shifting point of view. Rating: TBA. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-built and headline-actor led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles contemporary horror memes and true crime fixations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 detonates, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further opens again, with a different family linked to returning horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survivalist horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. 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: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBA. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 bone-deep menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more measured 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 drops. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify meme-ready beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can control a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, 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 ratchet upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, smart allocations, 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 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is IP strength where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.