Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on top streamers

An bone-chilling mystic scare-fest from literary architect / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an age-old force when passersby become subjects in a dark contest. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing saga of survival and archaic horror that will resculpt terror storytelling this October. Visualized by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and cinematic screenplay follows five lost souls who find themselves sealed in a remote shelter under the oppressive power of Kyra, a central character claimed by a legendary ancient fiend. Arm yourself to be immersed by a narrative presentation that harmonizes soul-chilling terror with ancestral stories, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a historical narrative in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is redefined when the entities no longer form from a different plane, but rather deep within. This illustrates the most terrifying corner of the protagonists. The result is a edge-of-seat inner struggle where the suspense becomes a intense tug-of-war between innocence and sin.


In a wilderness-stricken woodland, five figures find themselves stuck under the malicious aura and domination of a unknown being. As the companions becomes submissive to resist her curse, exiled and hunted by entities indescribable, they are pushed to face their inner demons while the clock without pause edges forward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust intensifies and teams collapse, pushing each individual to doubt their existence and the foundation of decision-making itself. The hazard grow with every heartbeat, delivering a frightening tale that connects occult fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to extract elemental fright, an force beyond time, manipulating fragile psyche, and challenging a will that peels away humanity when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra called for internalizing something rooted in terror. She is unaware until the invasion happens, and that pivot is shocking because it is so emotional.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for worldwide release beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure fans everywhere can witness this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its release of trailer #1, which has been viewed over notable views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, making the film to lovers of terror across nations.


Don’t miss this bone-rattling descent into darkness. Face *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to acknowledge these fearful discoveries about human nature.


For bonus footage, extra content, and reveals from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit our film’s homepage.





Horror’s sea change: the 2025 season American release plan melds myth-forward possession, microbudget gut-punches, together with brand-name tremors

Ranging from life-or-death fear steeped in legendary theology and including IP renewals in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is lining up as the most dimensioned together with calculated campaign year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Top studios hold down the year with established lines, at the same time SVOD players flood the fall with debut heat as well as primordial unease. On the independent axis, indie storytellers is fueled by the backdraft of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are surgical, and 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige terror resurfaces

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal starts the year with a statement play: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a modern-day environment. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. targeting 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 ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Guided by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

At summer’s close, Warner’s pipeline releases the last chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re boards, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma driven plotting, with ghostly inner logic. Here the stakes rise, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It lands in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Plays: Modest spend, serious shock

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a room scale body horror descent including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a near certain autumn drop.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against 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.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It looks like sharp programming. No overstuffed canon. No IP hangover. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, steered by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Trends to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror retakes ground
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Near Term Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

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 will have to fight for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The coming 2026 chiller calendar year ahead: next chapters, fresh concepts, together with A stacked Calendar geared toward jolts

Dek The current genre calendar clusters right away with a January logjam, then carries through midyear, and far into the December corridor, weaving marquee clout, original angles, and smart counterweight. Studios and streamers are leaning into mid-range economics, cinema-first plans, and platform-native promos that frame horror entries into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The genre has turned into the dependable tool in annual schedules, a pillar that can surge when it catches and still cushion the exposure when it misses. After the 2023 year reassured top brass that cost-conscious fright engines can own mainstream conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with buzzy auteur projects and under-the-radar smashes. The carry rolled into the 2025 frame, where reboots and awards-minded projects proved there is a lane for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to non-IP projects that travel well. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a slate that is strikingly coherent across the field, with intentional bunching, a spread of familiar brands and new packages, and a recommitted commitment on theatrical windows that fuel later windows on premium digital and streaming.

Studio leaders note the space now slots in as a schedule utility on the distribution slate. The genre can premiere on virtually any date, deliver a simple premise for promo reels and vertical videos, and exceed norms with fans that lean in on advance nights and hold through the second weekend if the entry fires. Emerging from a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 plan underscores comfort in that approach. The slate kicks off with a loaded January window, then primes spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while clearing room for a fall run that runs into the Halloween frame and into early November. The layout also features the deeper integration of specialty distributors and subscription services that can platform a title, create conversation, and grow at the proper time.

A further high-level trend is brand management across ongoing universes and established properties. Big banners are not just making another follow-up. They are seeking to position brand continuity with a occasion, whether that is a typeface approach that indicates a fresh attitude or a casting pivot that links a latest entry to a initial period. At the alongside this, the directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into on-set craft, physical gags and site-specific worlds. That pairing provides the 2026 slate a solid mix of comfort and shock, which is the formula for international play.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount fires first with two prominent pushes that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the lead, setting it up as both a relay and a DNA-forward character study. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach points to a nostalgia-forward treatment without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign anchored in heritage visuals, character-first teases, and a rollout cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will drive large awareness through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format inviting quick redirects to whatever leads the social talk that spring.

Universal has three unique projects. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is tidy, loss-driven, and premise-first: a grieving man sets up an synthetic partner that evolves into a murderous partner. The date places it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s campaign likely to mirror viral uncanny stunts and short-cut promos that fuses love and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a title drop to become an headline beat closer to the initial promo. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are set up as signature events, with a hinting teaser and a later trailer push that signal tone without plot the concept. The spooky-season slot opens a lane to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has demonstrated that a gnarly, on-set effects led treatment can feel deluxe on a lean spend. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror charge that leans into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio books two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, sustaining a dependable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is presenting as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 well-defined brief to serve both diehards and general audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build assets around lore, and monster design, elements that can fuel IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror centered on meticulous craft and linguistic texture, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is warm.

Streaming windows and tactics

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s slate feed copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a structure that elevates both initial urgency and viewer acquisition in the tail. Prime Video pairs licensed films with cross-border buys and short theatrical plays when the data points to it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in catalog engagement, using seasonal hubs, Halloween hubs, and staff picks to sustain interest on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps options open about original films and festival pickups, finalizing horror entries toward the drop and turning into events premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a hybrid of tailored theatrical exposure and rapid platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has shown appetite to secure select projects with name filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for retention when the genre conversation builds.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 arc with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is uncomplicated: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, elevated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a standard theatrical run for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas window to scale. That positioning has been successful for prestige horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using precision theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subs.

Legacy titles versus originals

By proportion, 2026 is weighted toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use brand equity. The risk, as ever, is audience fatigue. The operating solution is to pitch each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a European tilt from a new voice. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the assembly is anchored enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps announce the approach. In 2023, a cinema-first model that honored streaming windows did not foreclose a same-day experiment from delivering when the brand was trusted. In 2024, auteur craft horror over-performed in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they shift POV and expand the canvas. 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, creates space for marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to leave creative active without lulls.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued lean toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that highlights creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which horror tracks with a medieval setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft profiles and artisan spotlights before rolling out a preview that keeps plot minimal, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature work and production design, which play well in fan conventions and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid larger brand plays. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the menu of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Q1 into Q2 stage summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a early fall window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface this contact form while the narrative revisits the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s algorithmic partner becomes something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 tough boss scramble to survive on a desolate island as the power balance upends and dread encroaches. 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 not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to dread, driven by Cronin’s in-camera craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 intimate haunting tale that threads the dread through a youngster’s unreliable point of view. Rating: to be announced. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A parody return that teases hot-button genre motifs and true crime fervors. Rating: pending. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites bursts, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household tethered to ancient dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on classic survival-horror tone over action-centric bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and primordial menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three operational forces frame this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or reshuffled in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming landings. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work turnkey scare beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in click site early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will compete across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundscape, 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, Lined Up To Scare

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is name recognition where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.