Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a fear soaked thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on global platforms

One hair-raising spiritual suspense story from writer / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an primeval evil when passersby become instruments in a diabolical maze. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a intense account of resistance and age-old darkness that will resculpt the horror genre this season. Directed by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and immersive film follows five people who wake up locked in a secluded hideaway under the aggressive dominion of Kyra, a mysterious girl inhabited by a biblical-era sacred-era entity. Ready yourself to be ensnared by a visual experience that blends primitive horror with timeless legends, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a well-established tradition in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is reversed when the malevolences no longer develop outside the characters, but rather inside their minds. This portrays the haunting shade of every character. The result is a intense identity crisis where the tension becomes a intense contest between heaven and hell.


In a wilderness-stricken outland, five young people find themselves isolated under the evil sway and infestation of a haunted apparition. As the ensemble becomes unable to oppose her rule, exiled and attacked by creatures mind-shattering, they are obligated to confront their worst nightmares while the clock ruthlessly ticks toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension deepens and connections splinter, urging each cast member to examine their identity and the foundation of independent thought itself. The risk magnify with every minute, delivering a cinematic nightmare that merges demonic fright with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to uncover deep fear, an darkness born of forgotten ages, embedding itself in inner turmoil, and questioning a curse that peels away humanity when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra involved tapping into something beyond human emotion. She is blind until the spirit seizes her, and that change is terrifying because it is so close.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving viewers internationally can be part of this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first preview, which has garnered over a viral response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, delivering the story to a worldwide audience.


Do not miss this life-altering descent into hell. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to acknowledge these terrifying truths about the psyche.


For teasers, production insights, and reveals via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your socials and visit our spooky domain.





Contemporary horror’s pivotal crossroads: calendar year 2025 U.S. rollouts fuses biblical-possession ideas, festival-born jolts, in parallel with IP aftershocks

Kicking off with endurance-driven terror grounded in biblical myth all the way to canon extensions as well as focused festival visions, 2025 is emerging as the richest and strategic year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Top studios plant stakes across the year with franchise anchors, in parallel digital services crowd the fall with discovery plays plus old-world menace. Meanwhile, indie storytellers is propelled by the backdraft of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The fall stretch is the proving field, but this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are precise, which means 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige fear returns

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s slate begins the calendar with a bold swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a sharp contemporary setting. Guided by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. landing in mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Under Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer eases, Warner’s slate rolls out the capstone from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson is back, and those signature textures resurface: retro dread, trauma foregrounded, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It arrives in December, holding the cold season’s end.

SVOD Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale featuring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No swollen lore. No franchise baggage. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. 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 premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, steered by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror comes roaring back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

What’s Next: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. 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.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The coming 2026 chiller lineup: continuations, original films, And A hectic Calendar aimed at Scares

Dek The incoming scare calendar clusters in short order with a January cluster, after that runs through the mid-year, and deep into the holiday frame, mixing franchise firepower, new concepts, and smart alternatives. The big buyers and platforms are prioritizing efficient budgets, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that position genre titles into mainstream chatter.

How the genre looks for 2026

The horror sector has emerged as the predictable play in release plans, a pillar that can expand when it hits and still cushion the drawdown when it misses. After 2023 re-taught strategy teams that cost-conscious entries can own audience talk, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with festival-darling auteurs and sleeper breakouts. The carry extended into 2025, where re-entries and premium-leaning entries made clear there is appetite for a variety of tones, from brand follow-ups to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The aggregate for 2026 is a run that presents tight coordination across players, with purposeful groupings, a balance of legacy names and fresh ideas, and a sharpened emphasis on release windows that power the aftermarket on paid VOD and streaming.

Marketers add the space now acts as a utility player on the release plan. The genre can bow on numerous frames, offer a easy sell for marketing and UGC-friendly snippets, and over-index with crowds that line up on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the second frame if the movie delivers. Emerging from a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 setup signals assurance in that approach. The year gets underway with a busy January band, then primes spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while making space for a fall corridor that carries into late October and beyond. The layout also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialty arms and home platforms that can build gradually, create conversation, and move wide at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is IP stewardship across unified worlds and heritage properties. Studio teams are not just greenlighting another chapter. They are setting up continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a title treatment that flags a re-angled tone or a casting move that binds a latest entry to a vintage era. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the eagerly awaited originals are prioritizing physical effects work, makeup and prosthetics and distinct locales. That blend yields the 2026 slate a robust balance of assurance and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount defines the early cadence with two marquee moves that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the center, marketing it as both a legacy handover and a rootsy character-centered film. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the creative posture telegraphs a classic-referencing approach without rehashing the last two entries’ sisters thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive centered on classic imagery, initial cast looks, and a tease cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back 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 partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will emphasize. As a summer contrast play, this one will generate four-quadrant chatter through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick switches to whatever shapes the conversation that spring.

Universal has three specific bets. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is elegant, somber, and easily pitched: a grieving man purchases an artificial companion that becomes a murderous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a stacked January, with the Universal machine likely to bring back creepy live activations and short reels that threads affection and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a public title to become an headline beat closer to the first trailer. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s releases are presented as event films, with a hinting teaser and my review here a second beat that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot opens a lane to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a gritty, physical-effects centered method can feel top-tier on a moderate cost. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror jolt that centers offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio launches two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, continuing a reliable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is billing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can increase format premiums and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror defined by textural authenticity and historical speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. The company has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is strong.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform windowing in 2026 run on tested paths. The studio’s horror films feed copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a tiered path that expands both launch urgency and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends licensed films with global acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog engagement, using in-app campaigns, horror hubs, and curated strips to stretch the tail on the horror cume. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix originals and festival grabs, locking in horror entries near launch and framing as events debuts with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a two-step of precision theatrical plays and fast windowing that drives paid trials from buzz. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown a willingness to board select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 corridor with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is straightforward: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, elevated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday corridor to move out. That positioning has delivered for auteur horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception supports. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using mini theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

Series vs standalone

By number, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit marquee value. The watch-out, as ever, is brand erosion. The preferred tactic is to brand each entry as a new angle. Paramount is leading with character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-accented approach from a hot helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the cast-creatives package is recognizable enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years help explain the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that observed windows did not deter a day-date move from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and expand the canvas. 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 double feature plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, allows marketing to cross-link entries through cast and motif and to keep assets in-market without extended gaps.

Behind-the-camera trends

The shop talk behind this year’s genre indicate a continued move toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that leans on unease and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-correct language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft features before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and creates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature craft and set design, which lend themselves to booth activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that elevate hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

From winter to holidays

January is crowded. 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 moody palate cleanser amid headline IP. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the menu of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Pre-summer months stage summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a bridge slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a peekaboo tease plan and limited asset reveals that favor idea over plot.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s AI companion escalates into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 demanding boss struggle to survive on a uninhabited island as the control balance inverts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fear, grounded in Cronin’s hands-on craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 setup that interrogates the unease of a child’s shaky POV. Rating: rating pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-crafted and toplined ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles contemporary horror memes and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 ignites, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further reopens, with a fresh family bound to ancient dread. Rating: TBD. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-first horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: to be announced. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: pending. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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-precise speech and ancient menace. Rating: TBD. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces frame this lineup. First, production that eased or rearranged in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD great post to read and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on meme-ready beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will coexist across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where value-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 unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual imp source texture, sonics, and visual design 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

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is IP strength where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, protect the mystery, and let the fear sell the seats.