Primordial Dread Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising shocker, arriving October 2025 on major streaming services

An terrifying occult fear-driven tale from cinematographer / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an long-buried entity when unfamiliar people become tokens in a devilish contest. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful portrayal of resistance and timeless dread that will reconstruct scare flicks this cool-weather season. Guided by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and claustrophobic film follows five characters who arise ensnared in a wooded dwelling under the hostile grip of Kyra, a possessed female occupied by a prehistoric sacred-era entity. Arm yourself to be shaken by a big screen adventure that fuses intense horror with folklore, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a time-honored foundation in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is reimagined when the beings no longer arise beyond the self, but rather from their psyche. This marks the deepest corner of these individuals. The result is a bone-chilling moral showdown where the emotions becomes a constant clash between heaven and hell.


In a haunting forest, five figures find themselves imprisoned under the unholy dominion and control of a enigmatic apparition. As the group becomes powerless to resist her control, isolated and followed by presences mind-shattering, they are driven to reckon with their core terrors while the deathwatch ruthlessly ticks toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion escalates and links implode, urging each figure to question their existence and the foundation of autonomy itself. The risk magnify with every passing moment, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that weaves together supernatural terror with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to evoke pure dread, an spirit beyond time, influencing fragile psyche, and exposing a curse that dismantles free will when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant channeling something rooted in terror. She is clueless until the evil takes hold, and that evolution is gut-wrenching because it is so internal.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure households internationally can witness this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original clip, which has collected over a viral response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, presenting the nightmare to scare fans abroad.


Witness this mind-warping spiral into evil. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to dive into these nightmarish insights about inner darkness.


For behind-the-scenes access, set experiences, and news from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Facebook and TikTok and visit the movie’s homepage.





Modern horror’s tipping point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. calendar interlaces Mythic Possession, art-house nightmares, stacked beside franchise surges

Spanning fight-to-live nightmare stories grounded in scriptural legend as well as IP renewals set beside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is emerging as the genre’s most multifaceted and blueprinted year in recent memory.

Call it full, but it is also focused. the big studios are anchoring the year with known properties, at the same time subscription platforms front-load the fall with fresh voices alongside mythic dread. In the indie lane, horror’s indie wing is surfing the echoes from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Since Halloween is the prized date, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, notably this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, and 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige terror resurfaces

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 set the base, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal Pictures leads off the quarter with an audacious swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. targeting mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Helmed by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. launches the swan song from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the memorable motifs return: old school creep, trauma as narrative engine, and eerie supernatural logic. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The return delves further into myth, builds out the animatronic fear crew, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It posts in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, 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. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

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 puffed out backstory. No continuity burden. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Dials to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror retakes ground
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forecast: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The forthcoming 2026 genre cycle: follow-ups, Originals, plus A Crowded Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek The brand-new genre year stacks from day one with a January cluster, thereafter spreads through midyear, and continuing into the holidays, blending name recognition, novel approaches, and calculated counterprogramming. Studio marketers and platforms are relying on tight budgets, big-screen-first runs, and influencer-ready assets that frame these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror has established itself as the bankable lever in studio lineups, a corner that can break out when it performs and still hedge the drawdown when it underperforms. After the 2023 year demonstrated to executives that lean-budget horror vehicles can shape the zeitgeist, 2024 extended the rally with director-led heat and slow-burn breakouts. The head of steam extended into 2025, where revived properties and prestige plays underscored there is a lane for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to non-IP projects that carry overseas. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a grid that is strikingly coherent across the market, with strategic blocks, a combination of recognizable IP and novel angles, and a reinvigorated emphasis on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on paid VOD and streaming.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now slots in as a wildcard on the grid. The genre can open on many corridors, supply a clean hook for marketing and social clips, and outstrip with moviegoers that lean in on early shows and continue through the second weekend if the release satisfies. Coming out of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 rhythm shows assurance in that engine. The calendar launches with a crowded January lineup, then uses spring and early summer for contrast, while carving room for a fall cadence that reaches into the Halloween corridor and beyond. The arrangement also spotlights the increasing integration of boutique distributors and subscription services that can platform a title, stoke social talk, and scale up at the inflection point.

A parallel macro theme is IP cultivation across connected story worlds and storied titles. Big banners are not just producing another follow-up. They are working to present lineage with a occasion, whether that is a graphic identity that flags a fresh attitude or a star attachment that binds a incoming chapter to a classic era. At the in tandem, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are doubling down on practical craft, on-set effects and place-driven backdrops. That mix delivers 2026 a solid mix of trust and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline titles that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the center, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a origin-leaning character study. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a heritage-honoring mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Watch for a push anchored in legacy iconography, intro reveals, and a tease cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will emphasize. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick switches to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three clear pushes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, somber, and big-hook: a grieving man implements an synthetic partner that turns into a lethal partner. The date puts it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with marketing at Universal likely to renew off-kilter promo beats and snackable content that fuses intimacy and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a name unveil to become an PR pop closer to the early tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. His entries are sold as director events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second trailer wave that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The Halloween runway creates space for Universal 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a raw, makeup-driven method can feel deluxe on a moderate cost. Expect a grime-caked summer horror surge that emphasizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio sets two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a dependable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is marketing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both players and novices. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign pieces around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify premium format interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by historical precision and period language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ordering that expands both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up spikes in the downstream. Prime Video pairs licensed content with global pickups and limited runs in theaters when the data supports it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, genre hubs, and collection rows to keep attention on lifetime take. Netflix plays opportunist about original films and festival wins, confirming horror entries near their drops and staging as events debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a staged of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that translates talk to trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a curated basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for sustained usage when the genre conversation swells.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is direct: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, reimagined for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the September weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then working the Christmas window to open out. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception supports. Keep an eye 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 hand in hand, using mini theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchises versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit franchise value. The question, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to frame each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is spotlighting character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-tinted vision from a emerging director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and auteur plays add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the package is comforting enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Rolling three-year comps frame the playbook. In 2023, a cinema-first model that observed windows did not stop a same-day experiment from performing when the brand was powerful. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror surged in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and widen scale. 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 double feature plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, lets marketing to relate entries through protagonists and motifs and to continue assets in field without lulls.

How the films are being made

The director conversations behind the 2026 entries foreshadow a continued tilt toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights mood and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft coverage before rolling out a teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and generates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta reframe that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature execution and sets, which align with fan conventions and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel must-have. Look for trailers that spotlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in big rooms.

Annual flow

January is busy. 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 somber counterpoint amid larger brand plays. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tone spread ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

February through May tee up summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads 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 presents brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can deliver 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 cycled through premium screens.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a minimalist tease strategy and limited plot reveals that center concept over reveals.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s machine mate escalates into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a changing 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 push to survive on a uninhabited island as the pecking order flips and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s on-set craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting tale that plays with the chill of a child’s shaky point of view. Rating: TBD. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-scale and headline-actor led spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: see here Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that targets present-day genre chatter and true-crime crazes. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further extends again, with a unlucky family linked to old terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-driven horror over action fireworks. Rating: to be announced. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBA. Production: moving forward. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and primordial menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why this year, why now

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shifted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify repeatable beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can control a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first quiet 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, 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 texture, aural design, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand heft where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.