Age-old Evil Reawakens within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled feature, premiering Oct 2025 on major streaming services

This haunting otherworldly suspense film from author / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an timeless dread when guests become tools in a supernatural experiment. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving story of continuance and prehistoric entity that will revolutionize genre cinema this cool-weather season. Guided by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and claustrophobic screenplay follows five teens who wake up sealed in a secluded hideaway under the hostile will of Kyra, a female presence haunted by a time-worn sacrosanct terror. Get ready to be hooked by a filmic spectacle that weaves together primitive horror with biblical origins, arriving on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a recurring pillar in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is challenged when the entities no longer emerge from beyond, but rather from deep inside. This illustrates the most sinister corner of the group. The result is a intense internal warfare where the intensity becomes a soul-crushing conflict between purity and corruption.


In a barren natural abyss, five campers find themselves cornered under the dark control and haunting of a shadowy entity. As the cast becomes paralyzed to withstand her dominion, cut off and pursued by unknowns inconceivable, they are pushed to confront their greatest panics while the doomsday meter harrowingly strikes toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion mounts and friendships break, prompting each character to scrutinize their self and the principle of independent thought itself. The threat escalate with every fleeting time, delivering a fear-soaked story that fuses occult fear with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to evoke pure dread, an force older than civilization itself, feeding on our weaknesses, and questioning a force that challenges autonomy when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra called for internalizing something more primal than sorrow. She is blind until the possession kicks in, and that transformation is gut-wrenching because it is so visceral.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audience access beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—ensuring horror lovers across the world can enjoy this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its initial teaser, which has garnered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, presenting the nightmare to viewers around the world.


Mark your calendar for this cinematic ride through nightmares. Join *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to see these fearful discoveries about inner darkness.


For exclusive trailers, special features, and updates from those who lived it, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across your socials and visit the movie portal.





Contemporary horror’s major pivot: the 2025 season stateside slate melds old-world possession, festival-born jolts, together with franchise surges

Beginning with survivor-centric dread infused with ancient scripture and onward to series comebacks plus focused festival visions, 2025 is shaping up as horror’s most layered combined with tactically planned year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios are anchoring the year through proven series, even as streamers flood the fall with new voices paired with ancient terrors. At the same time, independent banners is catching the uplift from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, though in this cycle, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are intentional, hence 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige fear returns

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal Pictures sets the tone with a statement play: a modernized Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, in an immediate now. Led by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. set for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer fades, Warner’s slate unveils the final movement from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the outline is tried, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re boards, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: old school creep, trauma centered writing, with ghostly inner logic. This time, the stakes are raised, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The return delves further into myth, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, courting teens and the thirty something base. It posts in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a tight space body horror vignette fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend led by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a clever angle. No puffed out backstory. No legacy baggage. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Series Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, under Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Emerging Currents

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror reemerges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The upcoming Horror release year: Sequels, new stories, as well as A brimming Calendar engineered for goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new scare slate lines up early with a January logjam, and then stretches through the summer months, and straight through the December corridor, braiding legacy muscle, novel approaches, and well-timed counter-scheduling. Studios and platforms are relying on right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that turn these films into broad-appeal conversations.

Where horror stands going into 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the predictable swing in release plans, a lane that can surge when it connects and still buffer the liability when it does not. After the 2023 year showed decision-makers that mid-range chillers can shape the national conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with visionary-driven titles and sleeper breakouts. The tailwind rolled into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and festival-grade titles confirmed there is capacity for different modes, from series extensions to director-led originals that travel well. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a schedule that appears tightly organized across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a harmony of household franchises and new pitches, and a refocused eye on theatrical windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital rental and streaming.

Insiders argue the genre now acts as a utility player on the slate. The genre can open on almost any weekend, deliver a clear pitch for creative and platform-native cuts, and over-index with crowds that appear on preview nights and return through the next pass if the film connects. Exiting a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 pattern reflects trust in that equation. The year begins with a crowded January corridor, then exploits spring through early summer for genre counterpoints, while carving room for a September to October window that connects to spooky season and afterwards. The gridline also illustrates the greater integration of specialty arms and OTT outlets that can grow from platform, grow buzz, and expand at the precise moment.

An added macro current is brand management across connected story worlds and classic IP. Distribution groups are not just making another follow-up. They are aiming to frame lineage with a specialness, whether that is a art treatment that flags a new tone or a casting choice that links a next entry to a initial period. At the simultaneously, the writer-directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are leaning into hands-on technique, physical gags and location-forward worlds. That interplay affords 2026 a healthy mix of home base and discovery, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount defines the early cadence with two headline projects that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the spine, framing it as both a relay and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture telegraphs a legacy-leaning strategy without rehashing the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout leaning on franchise iconography, first images of characters, and a promo sequence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will emphasize. As a summer relief option, this one will seek large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick pivots to whatever tops the social talk that spring.

Universal has three specific entries. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is tidy, loss-driven, and logline-clear: a grieving man implements an AI companion that becomes a deadly partner. The date puts it at the front of a packed window, with the studio’s marketing likely to mirror odd public stunts and short-form creative that hybridizes love and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a name unveil to become an event moment closer to the early tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele titles are branded as auteur events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives the studio room to lead 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a raw, physical-effects centered mix can feel deluxe on a efficient spend. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror blast that leans into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio books two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, keeping a reliable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is presenting as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both longtime followers and first-timers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign pieces around world-building, and monster craft, elements that can fuel premium booking interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in careful craft and historical speech, this time set against lycan legends. The specialty arm has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is favorable.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on proven patterns. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that news enhances both opening-weekend urgency and trial spikes in the after-window. Prime Video pairs licensed content with worldwide buys and brief theater runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in back-catalog play, using prominent placements, fright rows, and editorial rows to extend momentum on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about own-slate titles and festival deals, timing horror entries closer to drop and framing as events debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a dual-phase of targeted cinema placements and quick platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a discrete basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to board select projects with established auteurs or star packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation builds.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 sequence with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is simple: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical-first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has paid off for elevated genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their audience.

IP versus fresh ideas

By weight, 2026 tilts in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on name recognition. The concern, as ever, is viewer burnout. The standing approach is to pitch each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is foregrounding character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the assembly is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the plan. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not hamper a day-date move from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror outperformed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, lets marketing to connect the chapters through character arcs and themes and to keep assets in-market without pause points.

How the look and feel evolve

The shop talk behind this year’s genre indicate a continued preference for material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights mood and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft journalism and technical spotlights before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and produces shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta inflection that centers an original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster work and world-building, which play well in convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that play in premium auditoriums.

How the year maps out

January is stacked. 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 atmospheric change-up amid larger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the mix of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late Q1 and spring tee up summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a early fall window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited plot reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can win the holiday when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s virtual companion turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

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 collide with a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: mood-led 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 unyielding boss claw to survive on a desolate island as the control balance shifts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

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 from-today rework that returns the monster to chill, driven by Cronin’s on-set craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting setup that twists the fear of a child’s tricky impressions. Rating: pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-grade and marquee-led supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A satirical comeback that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new household snared by returning horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-driven horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: pending. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: to be announced. Production: continuing. 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 elemental menace. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three execution-level forces define this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-slotted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine turnkey scare beats from test screenings, metered scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, 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 preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, efficient screen counts, 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 visual texture, sonics, 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.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is IP strength where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the gasps my review here sell the seats.