Ancient Evil Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled supernatural thriller, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

A chilling spiritual scare-fest from author / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an forgotten entity when newcomers become pawns in a hellish trial. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing account of resistance and prehistoric entity that will transform scare flicks this October. Guided by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and immersive cinema piece follows five lost souls who regain consciousness ensnared in a cut-off shelter under the malevolent manipulation of Kyra, a tormented girl consumed by a legendary biblical force. Anticipate to be gripped by a cinematic journey that fuses instinctive fear with arcane tradition, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a recurring theme in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is redefined when the monsters no longer descend outside their bodies, but rather from their psyche. This depicts the malevolent part of the group. The result is a psychologically brutal mind game where the drama becomes a ongoing push-pull between moral forces.


In a desolate terrain, five characters find themselves imprisoned under the fiendish sway and control of a shadowy person. As the survivors becomes helpless to resist her influence, cut off and chased by creatures beyond reason, they are driven to confront their raw vulnerabilities while the seconds coldly ticks toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion swells and connections fracture, driving each cast member to evaluate their essence and the philosophy of conscious will itself. The threat intensify with every beat, delivering a fear-soaked story that merges otherworldly suspense with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to explore deep fear, an evil that predates humanity, manipulating emotional vulnerability, and examining a presence that threatens selfhood when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra involved tapping into something unfamiliar to reason. She is ignorant until the haunting manifests, and that shift is emotionally raw because it is so internal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audience access beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing users globally can get immersed in this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its original promo, which has received over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, offering the tale to scare fans abroad.


Be sure to catch this cinematic path of possession. Stream *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to acknowledge these dark realities about the mind.


For bonus footage, special features, and announcements from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Facebook and TikTok and visit youngandcursed.com.





Current horror’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 U.S. release slate braids together legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, in parallel with returning-series thunder

Kicking off with survival horror rooted in near-Eastern lore and including legacy revivals plus surgical indie voices, 2025 is tracking to be the most stratified along with deliberate year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios lock in tentpoles using marquee IP, while OTT services crowd the fall with fresh voices together with mythic dread. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is propelled by the carry of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween stays the prime week, the other windows are mapped with care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and now, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are surgical, accordingly 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s distribution arm opens the year with a big gambit: a contemporary Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Directed by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised 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. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer fades, Warner’s slate unveils the final movement from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the outline is tried, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: throwback unease, trauma foregrounded, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It posts in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Led by 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 looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. 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.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, guided by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Ancient myth goes wide
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

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

SVOD originals harden up
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 hype becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The next scare lineup: installments, new stories, in tandem with A stacked Calendar aimed at jolts

Dek: The current horror season builds right away with a January glut, and then rolls through summer corridors, and well into the winter holidays, combining name recognition, creative pitches, and savvy counter-scheduling. Major distributors and platforms are prioritizing tight budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and buzz-forward plans that elevate genre titles into all-audience topics.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror filmmaking has become the consistent move in studio lineups, a segment that can spike when it clicks and still limit the downside when it misses. After 2023 demonstrated to leaders that efficiently budgeted entries can galvanize the zeitgeist, the following year kept the drumbeat going with auteur-driven buzzy films and quiet over-performers. The tailwind rolled into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and premium-leaning entries confirmed there is appetite for a variety of tones, from series extensions to filmmaker-driven originals that translate worldwide. The sum for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across distributors, with clear date clusters, a pairing of marquee IP and new packages, and a recommitted strategy on theater exclusivity that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and home platforms.

Insiders argue the horror lane now acts as a fill-in ace on the slate. The genre can launch on many corridors, provide a easy sell for trailers and reels, and outpace with ticket buyers that respond on previews Thursday and maintain momentum through the week two if the entry lands. Post a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 cadence underscores faith in that dynamic. The year commences with a loaded January lineup, then leans on spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while saving space for a autumn push that connects to holiday-adjacent weekends and afterwards. The gridline also reflects the greater integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can grow from platform, spark evangelism, and scale up at the inflection point.

An added macro current is IP cultivation across ongoing universes and long-running brands. The players are not just pushing another installment. They are working to present lineage with a specialness, whether that is a art treatment that indicates a reframed mood or a casting choice that anchors a new entry to a initial period. At the in tandem, the visionaries behind the marquee originals are favoring hands-on technique, on-set effects and vivid settings. That pairing offers the 2026 slate a solid mix of brand comfort and freshness, which is the formula for international play.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount sets the tone early with two spotlight entries that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the core, framing it as both a relay and a DNA-forward character piece. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance suggests a legacy-leaning angle without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Watch for a push rooted in franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a two-beat trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is big-screen 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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will pursue large awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick switches to whatever shapes the discourse that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster navigate here and Blumhouse. The conceit is tight, loss-driven, and easily pitched: a grieving man brings home an virtual partner that shifts into a deadly partner. The date slots it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s team likely to reprise uncanny-valley stunts and short-form creative that interlaces companionship and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots 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 official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a name unveil to become an earned moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His entries are positioned as creative events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second beat that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date affords Universal to saturate 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has proven that a gritty, physical-effects centered treatment can feel deluxe on a lean spend. Position this as a hard-R summer horror hit that leans hard into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending a consistent supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is framing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both core fans and casuals. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around setting detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can lift premium screens and fan-culture participation.

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 the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by minute detail and period speech, this time set against lycan legends. The specialty arm has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is strong.

Where the platforms fit in

Windowing plans in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate move to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a pacing that optimizes both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with worldwide buys and brief theater runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library pulls, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and collection rows to stretch the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps optionality about own-slate titles and festival deals, confirming horror entries tight to release and coalescing around releases with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a one-two of focused cinema runs and fast windowing that translates talk to trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a per-project basis. The platform has signaled readiness to purchase select projects with top-tier auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for sustained usage when the genre conversation surges.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 lane with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clear: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas window to increase reach. That positioning has proved effective for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By weight, 2026 skews toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use fan equity. The concern, as ever, is brand erosion. The pragmatic answer is to package each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is foregrounding character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is promising a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French sensibility from a ascendant talent. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the assembly is comforting enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Comparable trends from recent years clarify the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that respected streaming windows did not prevent a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was big. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror exceeded expectations in PLF. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they change perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The director conversations behind these films suggest a continued turn 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 accords with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that foregrounds grain and menace rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead press and department features before rolling out a tone piece that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and sparks shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature craft and set design, which align with convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that highlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that shine in top rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is heavy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast check over here amid headline IP. The month concludes 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 legit, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Post-January through spring prime the summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy reimagines 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 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Back half into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited advance reveals that elevate concept over story.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s artificial companion becomes something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

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 meet a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: atmospheric 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 tough boss struggle to survive on a lonely island as the power dynamic reverses and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s hands-on craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting narrative that frames the panic through a preteen’s uncertain inner lens. Rating: TBD. Production: in the can. 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 creative roles. Logline: {A parody reboot that pokes at in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime buzz. Rating: pending. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 erupts, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a young family snared by returning horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A new start designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in classic survival-horror tone over action spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving forward. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and ancient menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the moment is 2026

Three grounded forces shape this lineup. First, production that decelerated or rearranged in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and condensed timelines. 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming landings. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work bite-size scare clips from test screenings, select scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will compete across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night 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, sound, and visual design 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

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand equity where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the scares sell the seats.