Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primordial evil, a nerve shredding shocker, debuting Oct 2025 on leading streamers

A hair-raising otherworldly fright fest from cinematographer / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an forgotten curse when newcomers become vehicles in a diabolical ceremony. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a intense journey of living through and primeval wickedness that will resculpt horror this ghoul season. Realized by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and eerie suspense flick follows five individuals who emerge imprisoned in a remote hideaway under the menacing will of Kyra, a female presence inhabited by a ancient Old Testament spirit. Be prepared to be hooked by a immersive event that intertwines deep-seated panic with timeless legends, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a iconic trope in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is reimagined when the dark entities no longer emerge outside their bodies, but rather through their own souls. This represents the most terrifying facet of the victims. The result is a psychologically brutal psychological battle where the conflict becomes a unyielding struggle between good and evil.


In a desolate forest, five young people find themselves isolated under the dark sway and grasp of a unidentified spirit. As the characters becomes incapable to reject her curse, disconnected and tracked by terrors beyond comprehension, they are made to battle their inner demons while the clock mercilessly draws closer toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia mounts and friendships break, coercing each figure to evaluate their existence and the structure of decision-making itself. The stakes climb with every fleeting time, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that combines demonic fright with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to awaken pure dread, an spirit beyond time, manifesting in inner turmoil, and questioning a curse that erodes the self when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra was about accessing something unfamiliar to reason. She is ignorant until the entity awakens, and that change is bone-chilling because it is so close.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—ensuring subscribers anywhere can be part of this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original clip, which has garnered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, giving access to the movie to global fright lovers.


Witness this life-altering journey into fear. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this launch day to explore these fearful discoveries about inner darkness.


For behind-the-scenes access, director cuts, and reveals via the production team, follow @YACMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit youngandcursed.com.





Today’s horror inflection point: 2025 in focus U.S. rollouts fuses archetypal-possession themes, microbudget gut-punches, set against brand-name tremors

Spanning fight-to-live nightmare stories rooted in near-Eastern lore all the way to legacy revivals alongside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the most variegated combined with carefully orchestrated year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio powerhouses lay down anchors using marquee IP, simultaneously streamers prime the fall with fresh voices set against mythic dread. In the indie lane, independent banners is fueled by the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, distinctly in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are methodical, as a result 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium genre swings back

The majors are assertive. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s schedule leads off the quarter with a bold swing: a modernized Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Booked into 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 conversion presented as stripped terror. Helmed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

By late summer, the WB camp bows the concluding entry within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson returns to the helm, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: 70s style chill, trauma foregrounded, and a cold supernatural calculus. This pass pushes higher, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

On the docket is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative with Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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 looks like sharp programming. No overinflated mythology. No canon weight. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

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, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

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

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, led by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror resurges
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Outlook: 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. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The coming 2026 genre cycle: continuations, non-franchise titles, together with A brimming Calendar designed for frights

Dek: The current genre season builds up front with a January bottleneck, following that unfolds through June and July, and continuing into the holiday stretch, fusing IP strength, novel approaches, and well-timed counterweight. Studios and streamers are leaning into cost discipline, cinema-first plans, and influencer-ready assets that frame genre titles into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

The horror marketplace has established itself as the dependable release in studio lineups, a lane that can grow when it clicks and still hedge the liability when it misses. After the 2023 year re-taught buyers that lean-budget horror vehicles can shape cultural conversation, 2024 carried the beat with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The tailwind moved into 2025, where revived properties and awards-minded projects underscored there is room for different modes, from legacy continuations to one-and-done originals that export nicely. The result for the 2026 slate is a programming that shows rare alignment across the field, with clear date clusters, a spread of established brands and new packages, and a sharpened eye on theater exclusivity that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and subscription services.

Buyers contend the genre now performs as a fill-in ace on the programming map. The genre can premiere on many corridors, supply a simple premise for ad units and TikTok spots, and lead with ticket buyers that turn out on first-look nights and sustain through the second weekend if the entry connects. Coming out of a production delay era, the 2026 pattern signals assurance in that logic. The slate begins with a front-loaded January schedule, then taps spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while saving space for a October build that flows toward Halloween and past the holiday. The layout also underscores the continuing integration of specialty distributors and streamers that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and broaden at the proper time.

Another broad trend is brand management across linked properties and storied titles. Major shops are not just greenlighting another chapter. They are moving to present connection with a must-see charge, whether that is a art treatment that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a lead change that threads a new installment to a initial period. At the concurrently, the directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to practical craft, physical gags and concrete locations. That blend yields the 2026 slate a confident blend of trust and surprise, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount sets the tone early with two high-profile plays that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the core, positioning the film as both a lineage transfer and a classic-mode character-centered film. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a roots-evoking mode without repeating the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Plan for a rollout fueled by iconic art, first-look character reveals, and a staggered trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will generate broad awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick shifts to whatever drives pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three separate bets. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is tidy, tragic, and logline-clear: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that becomes a deadly partner. The date locates it at the front of a thick month, with the studio’s marketing likely to renew viral uncanny stunts and bite-size content that threads companionship and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title drop to become an headline beat closer to the early tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His projects are marketed as signature events, with a concept-forward tease and a second trailer wave that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot allows Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a in-your-face, on-set see here effects led treatment can feel top-tier on a disciplined budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror charge that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio books two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, continuing a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is selling as a fresh 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 focus to serve both longtime followers and new audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build promo materials around lore, and creature work, elements that can lift large-format demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by careful craft and archaic language, this time set against lycan legends. The imprint has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate move to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that amplifies both premiere heat and sign-up spikes in the back half. Prime Video blends third-party pickups with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in catalog discovery, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and curated rows to stretch the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps flexible about internal projects and festival pickups, slotting horror entries near launch and turning into events rollouts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a per-project basis. The platform has signaled readiness to secure select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 corridor with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is simple: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the October weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then using the year-end corridor to go wider. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Watch for 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 together, using mini theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand erosion. The operating solution is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is underscoring character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is familiar enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years help explain the template. In 2023, a theater-first model that honored streaming windows did not block a day-date move from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, art-forward horror exceeded expectations in premium formats. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they shift POV and raise the stakes. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to bridge entries through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The craft rooms behind this slate indicate a continued move toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that highlights grain and menace rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft coverage before rolling out a teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and sparks shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta pivot that centers an original star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature craft and set design, which match well with convention floor stunts and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that emphasize razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that sing on PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. 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 brooding contrast amid marquee brands. The month wraps 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 thick, but the menu of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Post-January through spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now supports 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited information drops that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s synthetic partner unfolds into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: tone-first 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 prickly boss push to survive on a uninhabited island as the power dynamic turns and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to menace, based on Cronin’s material craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that channels the fear through a child’s unreliable personal vantage. Rating: forthcoming. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A comic send-up that pokes at today’s horror trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. 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 breaks out, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new clan lashed to ancient dread. Rating: pending. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-first horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBA. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 language and primal menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up with December 25 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the moment is 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces inform this lineup. First, production that paused or shuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more structured 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 placements. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest meme-ready beats from test screenings, managed 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 capture a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 search for sleepers 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, soundscape, and image-making 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 evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.