Age-old Evil returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling horror feature, arriving Oct 2025 across major platforms

This spine-tingling spectral terror film from scriptwriter / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an primeval entity when strangers become vehicles in a fiendish trial. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing depiction of resilience and age-old darkness that will resculpt horror this scare season. Guided by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and tone-heavy suspense flick follows five unacquainted souls who awaken imprisoned in a secluded cabin under the malignant sway of Kyra, a female lead possessed by a antiquated ancient fiend. Brace yourself to be absorbed by a visual venture that combines deep-seated panic with ancient myths, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a enduring element in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is redefined when the spirits no longer come externally, but rather inside their minds. This embodies the most hidden version of the group. The result is a edge-of-seat mental war where the story becomes a ongoing fight between virtue and vice.


In a abandoned forest, five figures find themselves stuck under the fiendish aura and overtake of a uncanny female presence. As the protagonists becomes helpless to fight her curse, marooned and tracked by forces ungraspable, they are compelled to confront their deepest fears while the deathwatch coldly pushes forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust amplifies and partnerships fracture, compelling each protagonist to reflect on their existence and the foundation of volition itself. The stakes surge with every instant, delivering a horror experience that weaves together unearthly horror with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to channel primitive panic, an evil born of forgotten ages, emerging via psychological breaks, and challenging a being that redefines identity when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra demanded embodying something beneath mortal despair. She is unseeing until the possession kicks in, and that shift is haunting because it is so emotional.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that fans no matter where they are can experience this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its initial teaser, which has garnered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, taking the terror to horror fans worldwide.


Don’t miss this bone-rattling fall into madness. Explore *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to dive into these ghostly lessons about the mind.


For exclusive trailers, on-set glimpses, and reveals from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit our film’s homepage.





American horror’s inflection point: 2025 for genre fans domestic schedule integrates biblical-possession ideas, independent shockers, and IP aftershocks

Spanning pressure-cooker survival tales suffused with scriptural legend and onward to returning series alongside acutely observed indies, 2025 is emerging as the most variegated and calculated campaign year in recent memory.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Major studios are anchoring the year with established lines, even as digital services saturate the fall with new perspectives paired with primordial unease. On another front, festival-forward creators is catching the echoes of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, yet in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are surgical, and 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: High-craft horror returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal camp fires the first shot with a big gambit: a modernized Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, instead in a current-day frame. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. targeting mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. From director Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer winds down, the Warner Bros. banner delivers the closing chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the outline is tried, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the tone that worked before is intact: old school creep, trauma as text, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It lands in December, cornering year end horror.

Platform Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a close quarters body horror study starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is destined for a fall landing.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn featuring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No bloated mythology. No canon weight. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

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, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Emerging Currents

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror reemerges
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
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 Hype Equals Market Leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forward View: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The upcoming fright release year: continuations, original films, as well as A stacked Calendar tailored for chills

Dek The emerging horror season stacks from day one with a January cluster, from there rolls through summer, and continuing into the holiday frame, weaving franchise firepower, inventive spins, and well-timed counterprogramming. The major players are prioritizing efficient budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and short-form initiatives that frame horror entries into national conversation.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The horror sector has shown itself to be the predictable lever in studio slates, a genre that can grow when it performs and still safeguard the floor when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for executives that efficiently budgeted chillers can own cultural conversation, 2024 maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The energy carried into 2025, where revived properties and critical darlings signaled there is capacity for a variety of tones, from franchise continuations to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The sum for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across the field, with mapped-out bands, a equilibrium of household franchises and fresh ideas, and a recommitted focus on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium on-demand and digital services.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now operates like a swing piece on the schedule. The genre can arrive on virtually any date, provide a grabby hook for spots and shorts, and outperform with demo groups that lean in on previews Thursday and return through the second frame if the film pays off. Exiting a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 mapping demonstrates assurance in that equation. The slate gets underway with a stacked January stretch, then exploits spring through early summer for contrast, while leaving room for a October build that reaches into holiday-adjacent weekends and past the holiday. The schedule also features the continuing integration of specialty arms and SVOD players that can build gradually, fuel WOM, and grow at the timely point.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across brand ecosystems and storied titles. The companies are not just mounting another sequel. They are moving to present lore continuity with a occasion, whether that is a typeface approach that broadcasts a re-angled tone or a casting move that reconnects a fresh chapter to a classic era. At the simultaneously, the visionaries behind the high-profile originals are favoring physical effects work, on-set effects and place-driven backdrops. That combination affords the 2026 slate a healthy mix of home base and surprise, which is why the genre exports well.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount opens strong with two prominent releases that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the center, marketing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a DNA-forward character study. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the authorial approach hints at a legacy-leaning strategy without recycling the last two entries’ sibling arc. Expect a marketing push fueled by classic imagery, initial cast looks, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will feature. As a summer alternative, this one will generate general-audience talk through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format allowing quick redirects to whatever defines trend lines that spring.

Universal has three defined entries. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is elegant, somber, and commercial: a grieving man onboards an intelligent companion that mutates into a perilous partner. The date places it at the front of a stacked January, with the marketing arm likely to echo viral uncanny stunts and snackable content that threads affection and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the early tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s pictures are set up as marquee events, with a minimalist tease and a follow-up trailer set that signal tone without plot the concept. The pre-Halloween slot offers Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to 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 guides, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has proven that a blood-soaked, practical-effects forward mix can feel cinematic on a mid-range budget. Expect a red-band summer horror charge that maximizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio places two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is marketing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both core fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build promo materials around world-building, and creature effects, elements that can stoke premium format interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in textural authenticity and textual fidelity, this time set against lycan legends. The distributor has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is warm.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform plans for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a cadence that amplifies both opening-weekend urgency and trial spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines licensed titles with cross-border buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library pulls, using in-app campaigns, Halloween hubs, and handpicked rows to stretch the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix stays opportunistic about in-house releases and festival snaps, finalizing horror entries near their drops and making event-like premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a paired of targeted theatrical exposure and speedy 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 relying on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a per-project basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to secure select projects with recognized filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation spikes.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two recognizable titles. 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 atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the October weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday slot to scale. That positioning has worked well for elevated genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception encourages. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited runs to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

Legacy titles versus originals

By proportion, 2026 is weighted toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit fan equity. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The workable fix is to package each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is leading with character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a European tilt from a ascendant talent. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries keep oxygen in the system. 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 island-set survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the packaging is comforting enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent-year comps outline the logic. In 2023, a exclusive window model that observed windows did not block a hybrid test from paying off when the brand was big. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror exceeded expectations in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they reframe POV and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, gives leeway to marketing to tie installments through cast and motif and to keep materials circulating without dead zones.

How the look and feel evolve

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 slate forecast a continued bias toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that foregrounds tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft coverage before rolling out a first look that leans on mood over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and sparks shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta inflection that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on monster realization and design, which are ideal for fan conventions and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that spotlight razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that sing on PLF.

Month-by-month map

January is heavy. 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 marquee brands. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the palette of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Pre-summer months stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now backs 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. 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 cycled through premium screens.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a peekaboo tease plan and limited teasers that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is have a peek at this web-site a signal that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card use.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge 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 devastated man’s virtual companion mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

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

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss claw to survive on a far-flung island as the control balance reverses and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to terror, founded on Cronin’s in-camera craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting piece that frames the panic through a youth’s flickering subjective view. Rating: forthcoming. Production: locked. Positioning: major-studio and star-led paranormal suspense.

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 satirical comeback that teases current genre trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming slated 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 bursts, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a different family snared by older hauntings. Rating: TBD. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward pure survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: underway. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and primal menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three operational forces inform this lineup. First, production that paused or rearranged in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming placements. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on shareable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, this website May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, audio design, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is recognizable IP where it plays, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 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.