Primordial Dread Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror feature, launching Oct 2025 across premium platforms

One eerie mystic fright fest from writer / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an age-old malevolence when foreigners become proxies in a hellish ceremony. Going live on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing account of overcoming and forgotten curse that will revamp terror storytelling this spooky time. Directed by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and shadowy story follows five young adults who regain consciousness imprisoned in a wooded dwelling under the dark influence of Kyra, a mysterious girl inhabited by a millennia-old Old Testament spirit. Ready yourself to be drawn in by a audio-visual event that blends raw fear with mystical narratives, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a long-standing theme in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is turned on its head when the malevolences no longer form from beyond, but rather from their psyche. This illustrates the deepest shade of these individuals. The result is a gripping moral showdown where the suspense becomes a unforgiving contest between purity and corruption.


In a wilderness-stricken no-man's-land, five campers find themselves sealed under the ghastly grip and grasp of a mysterious entity. As the team becomes defenseless to withstand her manipulation, disconnected and pursued by beings impossible to understand, they are forced to face their soulful dreads while the timeline relentlessly draws closer toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear grows and partnerships disintegrate, driving each person to evaluate their self and the philosophy of conscious will itself. The stakes escalate with every short lapse, delivering a scare-fueled ride that connects ghostly evil with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to tap into primitive panic, an spirit older than civilization itself, embedding itself in our fears, and examining a spirit that peels away humanity when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra needed manifesting something past sanity. She is in denial until the entity awakens, and that conversion is shocking because it is so unshielded.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing watchers around the globe can survive this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first trailer, which has attracted over notable views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, delivering the story to viewers around the world.


Be sure to catch this mind-warping trip into the unknown. Stream *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to see these ghostly lessons about the mind.


For featurettes, special features, and announcements from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your socials and visit the official movie site.





U.S. horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 in focus stateside slate Mixes myth-forward possession, indie terrors, paired with brand-name tremors

Running from life-or-death fear infused with old testament echoes through to returning series set beside focused festival visions, 2025 is coalescing into the most stratified and strategic year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Top studios lay down anchors by way of signature titles, at the same time platform operators prime the fall with discovery plays and ancestral chills. In the indie lane, the art-house flank is drafting behind the afterglow from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the other windows are mapped with care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, though in this cycle, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are methodical, as a result 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: High-craft horror returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s schedule fires the first shot with a marquee bet: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, inside today’s landscape. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring 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. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer eases, Warner Bros. Pictures delivers the closing chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retro dread, trauma as text, and eerie supernatural logic. This time, the stakes are raised, 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 second outing goes deeper into backstory, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It books December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Firsts: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a room scale body horror descent starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale featuring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. That is a savvy move. No swollen lore. No continuity burden. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

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.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If packaged well, it could track like 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.

Key Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

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

Platform originals gain bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

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

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The oncoming chiller calendar year ahead: Sequels, universe starters, and also A brimming Calendar engineered for Scares

Dek: The incoming horror cycle crowds right away with a January glut, before it runs through the summer months, and continuing into the late-year period, marrying legacy muscle, new voices, and savvy counterplay. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on tight budgets, theatrical leads, and buzz-forward plans that turn these films into mainstream chatter.

The landscape of horror in 2026

This space has proven to be the most reliable play in programming grids, a genre that can break out when it catches and still mitigate the downside when it falls short. After 2023 demonstrated to leaders that efficiently budgeted scare machines can own the discourse, 2024 maintained heat with festival-darling auteurs and unexpected risers. The upswing translated to 2025, where resurrections and elevated films showed there is a market for varied styles, from returning installments to fresh IP that perform internationally. The result for the 2026 slate is a grid that seems notably aligned across companies, with strategic blocks, a harmony of marquee IP and new packages, and a recommitted stance on cinema windows that drive downstream revenue on premium home window and SVOD.

Marketers add the space now operates like a wildcard on the schedule. Horror can bow on numerous frames, provide a clear pitch for marketing and UGC-friendly snippets, and outperform with viewers that come out on Thursday previews and maintain momentum through the second frame if the film lands. After a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 plan exhibits trust in that engine. The year starts with a thick January run, then plants flags in spring and early summer for contrast, while making space for a fall corridor that stretches into the Halloween corridor and past the holiday. The map also shows the stronger partnership of specialty arms and digital platforms that can platform a title, stoke social talk, and broaden at the proper time.

A further high-level trend is brand management across ongoing universes and legacy IP. The players are not just rolling another installment. They are looking to package brand continuity with a occasion, whether that is a typeface approach that indicates a fresh attitude or a star attachment that binds a latest entry to a classic era. At the same time, the directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are prioritizing physical effects work, practical gags and site-specific worlds. That mix produces the 2026 slate a robust balance of recognition and discovery, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight titles that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the heart, presenting it as both a passing of the torch and a return-to-roots character piece. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach announces a classic-referencing framework without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Watch for a push stacked with legacy iconography, character previews, and a staggered trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a summer contrast play, this one will build broad awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick shifts to whatever shapes the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three specific lanes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tight, somber, and premise-first: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that escalates into a perilous check my blog partner. The date nudges it to the front of a thick month, with Universal’s team likely to reprise strange in-person beats and quick hits that hybridizes longing and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a name unveil to become an headline beat closer to the first trailer. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. The filmmaker’s films are set up as auteur events, with a teaser that holds back and a next wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date creates space for Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on 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 directs, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has demonstrated that a flesh-and-blood, on-set effects led mix can feel premium on a disciplined budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror hit that leans hard into global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio launches two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, keeping a trusty supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is billing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both diehards and fresh viewers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign creative around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can lift IMAX and PLF uptake and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror defined by obsessive craft and language, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus’s team has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is positive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform tactics for 2026 run on tested paths. The studio’s horror films head to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a ladder that expands both launch urgency and viewer acquisition in the post-theatrical. Prime Video interleaves outside acquisitions with international acquisitions and limited cinema engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library pulls, using seasonal hubs, horror hubs, and programmed rows to prolong the run on the horror cume. Netflix keeps optionality about internal projects and festival pickups, scheduling horror entries closer to launch and staging as events debuts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a one-two of targeted theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has signaled readiness to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for sustained usage when the genre conversation peaks.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 pipeline with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is direct: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, retooled for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a standard theatrical run for the title, an promising marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the December frame to go wider. That positioning has proved effective for director-led genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception drives. Be ready 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 as a pair, using select theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchises versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit marquee value. The concern, as ever, is fatigue. The preferred tactic is to frame each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is leading with character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Young & Cursed Burn is pushing a Francophone tone from a rising filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the packaging is known enough to build pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Rolling three-year comps announce the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that observed windows did not deter a day-date move from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, auteur craft horror over-performed in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reorient and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with Source chapters shot back-to-back, allows marketing to interlace chapters through personae and themes and to leave creative active without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The production chatter behind these films forecast a continued bias toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that highlights aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that withholds plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for red-band excess, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and generates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta inflection that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which lend themselves to convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is heavy. 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 somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Pre-summer months stage summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into 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 comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can deliver 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 run their PLF course.

End of summer through fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited plot reveals that put concept first.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s algorithmic partner mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 work to survive on a rugged island as the control balance flips and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to menace, rooted in Cronin’s in-camera craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 home-set haunting setup that channels the fear through a little one’s unsteady personal vantage. Rating: not yet rated. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that targets of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBA. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 international twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a young family lashed to old terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survivalist horror over action fireworks. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: proceeding. 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 era-faithful speech and raw menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces define this lineup. First, production that slowed or shifted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter schedules. 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming releases. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate meme-ready beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

The slot calculus is real. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will coexist across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 sleeper-hit hunt 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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first shock 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound, 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, Ready To Roar

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is recognizable IP where it plays, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, protect the mystery, and let the chills sell the seats.