Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on top streamers

One hair-raising mystic terror film from storyteller / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an archaic curse when newcomers become proxies in a dark trial. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing story of resilience and primeval wickedness that will revolutionize fear-driven cinema this spooky time. Realized by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and tone-heavy screenplay follows five young adults who snap to locked in a isolated cabin under the menacing influence of Kyra, a haunted figure occupied by a biblical-era sacred-era entity. Anticipate to be gripped by a narrative display that fuses gut-punch terror with ancient myths, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a iconic foundation in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is turned on its head when the beings no longer come from a different plane, but rather through their own souls. This echoes the deepest dimension of the protagonists. The result is a relentless internal warfare where the tension becomes a unforgiving face-off between divinity and wickedness.


In a abandoned natural abyss, five individuals find themselves contained under the sinister force and haunting of a uncanny character. As the cast becomes submissive to oppose her curse, isolated and stalked by beings indescribable, they are required to endure their inner demons while the countdown relentlessly ticks toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion escalates and partnerships splinter, requiring each survivor to scrutinize their core and the integrity of liberty itself. The hazard grow with every short lapse, delivering a terror ride that merges supernatural terror with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to draw upon elemental fright, an malevolence that predates humanity, manipulating fragile psyche, and wrestling with a spirit that challenges autonomy when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra asked for exploring something more primal than sorrow. She is insensitive until the evil takes hold, and that flip is harrowing because it is so personal.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for home viewing beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—offering users worldwide can witness this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original clip, which has collected over strong viewer count.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, offering the tale to horror fans worldwide.


Do not miss this heart-stopping trip into the unknown. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to dive into these terrifying truths about the soul.


For exclusive trailers, making-of footage, and insider scoops from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across platforms and visit the movie’s homepage.





Modern horror’s inflection point: calendar year 2025 U.S. release slate blends biblical-possession ideas, indie terrors, alongside IP aftershocks

Across fight-to-live nightmare stories rooted in biblical myth and onward to brand-name continuations paired with surgical indie voices, 2025 is emerging as the most complex paired with intentionally scheduled year in the past ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Top studios lock in tentpoles through proven series, simultaneously SVOD players flood the fall with debut heat in concert with ancestral chills. On the independent axis, the art-house flank is propelled by the afterglow of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, distinctly in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are intentional, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: High-craft horror returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s distribution arm kicks off the frame with a big gambit: a contemporary Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Led by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Guided by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

When summer fades, the WB camp releases the last chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re boards, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: vintage toned fear, trauma in the foreground, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time, the stakes are raised, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The next entry deepens the tale, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, reaching teens and game grownups. It drops in December, securing the winter cap.

Digital Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a two hander body horror spiral with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also notable is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable starring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

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 bloated mythology. No legacy baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Badges as Fuel

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

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Franchise Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, with Francis Lawrence directing, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Dials to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

What’s Next: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The 2026 terror slate: follow-ups, universe starters, alongside A stacked Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek The arriving scare cycle stacks from the jump with a January glut, following that unfolds through the warm months, and pushing into the winter holidays, mixing brand equity, inventive spins, and calculated counterweight. Major distributors and platforms are committing to tight budgets, big-screen-first runs, and influencer-ready assets that shape these offerings into water-cooler talk.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The horror sector has proven to be the surest play in studio slates, a vertical that can accelerate when it hits and still cushion the risk when it fails to connect. After 2023 re-taught top brass that cost-conscious scare machines can shape cultural conversation, 2024 carried the beat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and under-the-radar smashes. The tailwind moved into 2025, where revived properties and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is appetite for varied styles, from ongoing IP entries to one-and-done originals that play globally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a programming that shows rare alignment across studios, with intentional bunching, a equilibrium of brand names and original hooks, and a reinvigorated eye on release windows that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Distribution heads claim the category now works like a versatile piece on the programming map. Horror can roll out on open real estate, generate a easy sell for creative and reels, and outpace with viewers that arrive on first-look nights and continue through the next weekend if the film satisfies. After a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm telegraphs confidence in that setup. The year launches with a thick January band, then exploits spring through early summer for counterweight, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that flows toward Halloween and into November. The schedule also features the expanded integration of specialty distributors and SVOD players that can build gradually, fuel WOM, and grow at the right moment.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across linked properties and long-running brands. The companies are not just greenlighting another continuation. They are moving to present story carry-over with a must-see charge, whether that is a typeface approach that conveys a new tone or a talent selection that reconnects a new installment to a initial period. At the parallel to that, the helmers behind the most watched originals are favoring material texture, special makeup and place-driven backdrops. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a smart balance of recognition and unexpected turns, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount leads early with two high-profile plays that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the center, presenting it as both a lineage transfer and a return-to-roots relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the creative stance signals a heritage-honoring framework without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive rooted in brand visuals, initial cast looks, and a tease cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will emphasize. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will drive broad awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick adjustments to whatever leads the discourse that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is simple, melancholic, and concept-forward: a grieving man sets up an artificial companion that shifts into a perilous partner. The date locates it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s promo team likely to reprise uncanny live moments and bite-size content that interweaves longing and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title drop to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s pictures are framed as creative events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot offers Universal room to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has proven that a flesh-and-blood, practical-effects forward execution can feel cinematic on a moderate cost. Expect a splatter summer horror blast that spotlights foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio launches two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, continuing a consistent supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is billing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both longtime followers and casuals. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign creative around mythos, and monster design, elements that can accelerate large-format demand and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror defined by careful craft and textual fidelity, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus Features has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is supportive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Windowing plans in 2026 run on proven patterns. The Universal horror run transition to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a ordering that enhances both first-week urgency and sign-up momentum in the later window. Prime Video balances outside acquisitions with worldwide entries and limited cinema engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library pulls, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and editorial rows to increase tail value on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps options open about first-party entries and festival wins, dating horror entries closer to drop and elevating as drops launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a laddered of limited theatrical footprints and short jumps to platform that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has been willing to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for platform stickiness when the genre conversation builds.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is straightforward: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday slot to widen. That positioning has delivered for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception prompts. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using precision theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Series vs standalone

By number, the 2026 slate favors the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on brand equity. The concern, as ever, is brand erosion. The standing approach is to position each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is bringing forward character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-accented approach from a emerging director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the bundle is assuring enough to accelerate early sales and advance-audience nights.

Three-year comps frame the approach. In 2023, a exclusive window model that preserved streaming windows did not foreclose a parallel release from thriving when the brand was potent. In 2024, art-forward horror surged in premium formats. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reframe POV and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot back-to-back, allows marketing to relate entries through character and theme and to keep assets in-market without pause points.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The production chatter behind the upcoming entries forecast a continued lean toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that underscores mood and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in trade spotlights and guild coverage before rolling out a mood teaser that withholds plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and spurs shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-aware reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster aesthetics and world-building, which are ideal for convention activations and planned have a peek at this web-site releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that elevate surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is crowded. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid headline IP. The month closes 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 real, but the variety of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Q1 into Q2 build the summer base. Scream 7 bows February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a early fall window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that favor idea over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s core. 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 intelligent companion shifts into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

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 run into a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run 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 hard-edged boss scramble to survive on a rugged island as the pecking order upends and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to nightmare, built on Cronin’s in-camera craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting setup that plays with the horror of a child’s uncertain perspective. Rating: pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A genre lampoon that targets contemporary horror memes and true-crime manias. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a another family tethered to past horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survivalist horror over action spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBA. 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 period-precise speech and bone-deep menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a big-screen run before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026, why now

Three execution-level forces define this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or rearranged in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and compressed 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming drops. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate clippable moments from test screenings, precision scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, offering breathing room for genre entries that can seize a weekend 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 satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Expect a healthy 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, 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 sequence upward, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, aural 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 Looks Exciting

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is franchise muscle where it helps, fresh vision where it counts, 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the gasps sell the seats.