Primeval Evil Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling horror feature, launching October 2025 across global platforms

A terrifying spectral nightmare movie from dramatist / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an age-old fear when outsiders become pawns in a malevolent ceremony. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing portrayal of overcoming and forgotten curse that will revamp genre cinema this scare season. Created by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and cinematic story follows five figures who regain consciousness stuck in a off-grid shack under the unfriendly will of Kyra, a troubled woman inhabited by a legendary biblical demon. Steel yourself to be captivated by a cinematic journey that intertwines gut-punch terror with timeless legends, premiering on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a legendary tradition in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is redefined when the entities no longer descend from external sources, but rather from their psyche. This suggests the deepest facet of the victims. The result is a riveting spiritual tug-of-war where the plotline becomes a unforgiving push-pull between divinity and wickedness.


In a forsaken wild, five youths find themselves sealed under the ghastly dominion and possession of a mysterious being. As the victims becomes unable to reject her influence, exiled and attacked by presences unnamable, they are made to deal with their soulful dreads while the final hour ruthlessly moves toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear swells and bonds implode, requiring each protagonist to challenge their values and the notion of liberty itself. The cost escalate with every short lapse, delivering a nightmarish journey that blends demonic fright with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to channel basic terror, an malevolence from ancient eras, manifesting in mental cracks, and dealing with a force that dismantles free will when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra was about accessing something unfamiliar to reason. She is blind until the takeover begins, and that transition is eerie because it is so raw.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audience access beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure fans around the globe can witness this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its original promo, which has racked up over massive response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, bringing the film to a worldwide audience.


Experience this visceral ride through nightmares. Confront *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to see these ghostly lessons about the mind.


For featurettes, production news, and promotions from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursed across entertainment pages and visit the movie’s homepage.





Today’s horror sea change: the 2025 cycle U.S. calendar blends legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, alongside returning-series thunder

Running from life-or-death fear inspired by old testament echoes and including franchise returns together with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is shaping up as the most textured together with tactically planned year since the mid-2010s.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. top-tier distributors lay down anchors with franchise anchors, simultaneously streamers stack the fall with emerging auteurs and ancient terrors. In the indie lane, independent banners is riding the echoes from a record 2024 festival run. Since Halloween is the prized date, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, notably this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are targeted, and 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium genre swings back

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s pipeline sets the tone with a risk-forward move: a refashioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Under Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

By late summer, Warner’s slate releases the last chapter from its anchor horror saga: 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. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

After that, The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re engages, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: period tinged dread, trauma as text, with ghostly inner logic. The stakes escalate here, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The follow up digs further into canon, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It books December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a sealed box body horror arc pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. 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 film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is an astute call. No swollen lore. No continuity burden. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

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

Legacy IP: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, guided by 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.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trend Lines

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on 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 reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

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 must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. 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.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The new fright year to come: brand plays, standalone ideas, And A hectic Calendar designed for chills

Dek The upcoming genre calendar stacks at the outset with a January pile-up, after that runs through the summer months, and straight through the holiday stretch, blending name recognition, novel approaches, and calculated counterprogramming. The major players are prioritizing right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and viral-minded pushes that elevate the slate’s entries into water-cooler talk.

Where horror stands going into 2026

Horror has shown itself to be the sturdy option in distribution calendars, a genre that can surge when it breaks through and still insulate the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured leaders that mid-range scare machines can steer pop culture, the following year carried the beat with director-led heat and sleeper breakouts. The carry fed into 2025, where re-entries and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is capacity for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to one-and-done originals that export nicely. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a roster that seems notably aligned across the market, with obvious clusters, a pairing of established brands and new concepts, and a sharpened priority on box-office windows that feed downstream value on premium digital rental and digital services.

Marketers add the horror lane now operates like a flex slot on the grid. The genre can arrive on most weekends, provide a quick sell for marketing and reels, and over-index with ticket buyers that line up on early shows and return through the next weekend if the film fires. Exiting a production delay era, the 2026 setup reflects comfort in that playbook. The calendar gets underway with a stacked January band, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while clearing room for a fall run that runs into All Hallows period and beyond. The schedule also includes the greater integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and roll out at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across ongoing universes and classic IP. The studios are not just releasing another entry. They are seeking to position continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a graphic identity that signals a reframed mood or a casting choice that threads a next film to a initial period. At the parallel to that, the auteurs behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to practical craft, practical gags and specific settings. That pairing gives the 2026 slate a robust balance of recognition and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the heart, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a heritage-centered character study. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the artistic posture hints at a classic-referencing angle without recycling the last two entries’ family thread. Anticipate a campaign fueled by franchise iconography, early character teases, and a tiered teaser plan targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will lean on. As a summer contrast play, this one will go after general-audience talk through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick turns to whatever tops the discourse that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is simple, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an AI companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to echo strange in-person beats and brief clips that blurs intimacy and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a official title to become an event moment closer to the debut look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as filmmaker events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second beat that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor gives the studio room 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has established that a raw, hands-on effects method can feel elevated on a efficient spend. Position this as a splatter summer horror shock that leans hard into worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio places two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, carrying a steady supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is billing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both diehards and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around setting detail, and creature design, elements that can accelerate large-format demand and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror built on historical precision and linguistic texture, this time circling werewolf lore. The distributor has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is favorable.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform windowing in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s slate head to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a cadence that maximizes both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with international acquisitions and small theatrical windows when the data signals it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using curated hubs, seasonal hubs, and featured rows to maximize the tail on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix originals and festival snaps, slotting horror entries near launch and turning into events drops with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a hybrid of focused cinema runs and rapid platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to secure select projects with acclaimed directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

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 setup is simple: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, upgraded for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a theatrical-first plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then using the holiday slot to expand. That positioning has shown results for auteur horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Plan on 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 together, using select theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchises versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate bends toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use marquee value. The risk, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to sell each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a continental coloration from a rising filmmaker. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the deal build is steady enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night crowds.

Three-year comps contextualize the model. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that preserved streaming windows did not stop a day-date try from succeeding when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror outperformed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters shot in tandem, provides the means for marketing to relate entries through character web and themes and to hold creative in the market without hiatuses.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the year’s horror telegraph a continued move toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that spotlights atmosphere and fear rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that withholds plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta-horror reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature and environment design, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel primary. Look for trailers that spotlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is jammed. Universal’s 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 brooding contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tone spread affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late winter and spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 Check This Out on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a peekaboo tease plan and limited information drops that prioritize concept over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s AI companion turns 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

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 meet a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss try to survive on a remote island as the chain of command swivels and mistrust rises. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fear, grounded in Cronin’s tactile craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting narrative that pipes the unease through a youngster’s volatile inner lens. Rating: pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that teases present-day genre chatter and true-crime crazes. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new clan tethered to lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: closely held. Rating: to be announced. Production: proceeding. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and bone-deep menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 lands now

Three workable forces structure this lineup. First, production that eased or rearranged in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work repeatable beats from test screenings, metered scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, 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 stack across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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

The stealth-hit search 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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, 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 pattern and spread. January is a smorgasbord, 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 sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, right-sized allotments, 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 visuals that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is recognizable IP where it plays, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will Young & Cursed come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shudders sell the seats.