Antediluvian Dread Ascends within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling supernatural thriller, rolling out October 2025 across top streamers

One eerie spectral scare-fest from writer / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an long-buried curse when outsiders become proxies in a diabolical ceremony. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping tale of resilience and primeval wickedness that will revolutionize terror storytelling this October. Crafted by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and gothic film follows five strangers who regain consciousness trapped in a cut-off cottage under the malevolent power of Kyra, a haunted figure inhabited by a millennia-old sacrosanct terror. Arm yourself to be ensnared by a filmic event that integrates deep-seated panic with legendary tales, coming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a recurring motif in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is flipped when the demons no longer appear from an outside force, but rather from their core. This symbolizes the deepest version of the cast. The result is a psychologically brutal spiritual tug-of-war where the conflict becomes a perpetual battle between virtue and vice.


In a wilderness-stricken outland, five individuals find themselves imprisoned under the sinister force and haunting of a uncanny apparition. As the ensemble becomes unable to combat her control, exiled and pursued by beings unimaginable, they are confronted to stand before their worst nightmares while the clock mercilessly ticks toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear deepens and associations splinter, prompting each soul to scrutinize their essence and the concept of independent thought itself. The hazard climb with every instant, delivering a frightening tale that harmonizes spiritual fright with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to evoke basic terror, an entity beyond recorded history, operating within our weaknesses, and highlighting a entity that redefines identity when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra involved tapping into something beneath mortal despair. She is uninformed until the entity awakens, and that flip is deeply unsettling because it is so intimate.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing fans across the world can survive this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its first preview, which has garnered over six-figure audience.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, bringing the film to horror fans worldwide.


Do not miss this heart-stopping spiral into evil. Confront *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to face these fearful discoveries about the psyche.


For featurettes, filmmaker commentary, and insider scoops from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across social media and visit our spooky domain.





American horror’s sea change: 2025 across markets domestic schedule melds myth-forward possession, art-house nightmares, and IP aftershocks

Spanning life-or-death fear saturated with biblical myth through to legacy revivals paired with focused festival visions, 2025 is shaping up as the genre’s most multifaceted plus deliberate year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. the big studios are anchoring the year by way of signature titles, even as OTT services crowd the fall with fresh voices together with primordial unease. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is buoyed by the echoes from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and now, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are methodical, therefore 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium dread reemerges

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal Pictures fires the first shot with a big gambit: a contemporary Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Directed by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. dated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s slate launches the swan song within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. 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.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re boards, and the memorable motifs return: vintage toned fear, trauma foregrounded, and eerie supernatural logic. This run ups the stakes, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The new chapter enriches the lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, courting teens and the thirty something base. It hits in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Firsts: Economy, maximum dread

While theaters bet on familiarity, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a calculated bet. No bloated mythology. No series drag. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Brands: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in 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 adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Key Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
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
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The oncoming Horror lineup: returning titles, universe starters, alongside A jammed Calendar geared toward jolts

Dek The incoming scare cycle builds from day one with a January crush, after that unfolds through the mid-year, and continuing into the year-end corridor, blending brand equity, untold stories, and savvy calendar placement. Studio marketers and platforms are committing to responsible budgets, cinema-first plans, and social-driven marketing that elevate these releases into national conversation.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This category has proven to be the predictable swing in studio slates, a segment that can accelerate when it breaks through and still buffer the drawdown when it does not. After the 2023 year reassured top brass that efficiently budgeted entries can steer social chatter, 2024 maintained heat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and under-the-radar smashes. The energy extended into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is room for a spectrum, from continued chapters to standalone ideas that resonate abroad. The combined impact for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across companies, with intentional bunching, a mix of household franchises and original hooks, and a re-energized focus on exhibition windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium home window and digital services.

Executives say the genre now acts as a versatile piece on the rollout map. The genre can kick off on virtually any date, supply a easy sell for ad units and UGC-friendly snippets, and lead with audiences that respond on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the offering delivers. Coming out of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 pattern underscores comfort in that engine. The year rolls out with a crowded January schedule, then exploits spring through early summer for balance, while making space for a October build that stretches into the fright window and past Halloween. The program also spotlights the tightening integration of specialized labels and platforms that can build gradually, ignite recommendations, and scale up at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is brand strategy across unified worlds and classic IP. Studios are not just turning out another installment. They are seeking to position brand continuity with a occasion, whether that is a typeface approach that conveys a reframed mood or a lead change that anchors a new installment to a heyday. At the alongside this, the creative teams behind the headline-grabbing originals are doubling down on practical craft, special makeup and vivid settings. That mix gives 2026 a healthy mix of brand comfort and newness, which is what works overseas.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount leads early with two spotlight plays that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the Source spine, framing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a DNA-forward character-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative stance signals a heritage-honoring angle without replaying the last two entries’ sisters thread. Expect a marketing push built on legacy iconography, first-look character reveals, and a trailer cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will chase large awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format allowing quick reframes to whatever dominates the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three differentiated lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is efficient, somber, and high-concept: a grieving man sets up an virtual partner that shifts into a deadly partner. The date positions it at the front of a thick month, with the studio’s marketing likely to recreate odd public stunts and short reels that hybridizes longing and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under internal 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 permits a final title to become an PR pop closer to the first trailer. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s work are framed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a concept-forward tease and a subsequent trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate 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 leading. The franchise has proven that a visceral, practical-effects forward strategy can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror jolt that centers international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio mounts two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, holding a bankable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is billing as a reimagined restart 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 focus to serve both core fans and new audiences. The fall slot provides useful reference the studio time to build campaign pieces around mythos, and creature builds, elements that can boost premium screens and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on meticulous craft and language, this time orbiting lycan myth. The specialty arm has already locked the day for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is favorable.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform windowing in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s slate window into copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a tiered path that fortifies both initial urgency and sub growth in the later phase. Prime Video balances licensed content with worldwide buys and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in archive usage, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and editorial rows to extend momentum on the horror cume. Netflix keeps flexible about internal projects and festival snaps, finalizing horror entries with shorter lead times and staging as events drops with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a per-project basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly activity when the genre conversation swells.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 runway 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 tight: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, updated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical rollout for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the October weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the December frame to widen. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-first horror with four-quadrant hopes. 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 plausible forecast is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using mini theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By share, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on legacy awareness. The challenge, as ever, is overexposure. The standing approach is to package each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is bringing forward character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a Francophone tone from a fresh helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the deal build is assuring enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Rolling three-year comps outline the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept clean windows did not prevent a dual release from thriving when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror rose in premium large format. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they change perspective and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends 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 lensed sequentially, creates space for marketing to relate entries through personae and themes and to keep assets in-market without hiatuses.

Production craft signals

The filmmaking conversations behind this slate signal a continued move toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that elevates mood and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and drives shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature and environment design, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that spotlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

Annual flow

January is full. 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 big-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the range of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

February through May load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Back half into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder season window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a peekaboo tease plan and limited teasers that put concept first.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can play the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s digital partner becomes something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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

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 confront a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: aura-driven 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 difficult boss try to survive on a lonely island as the control balance inverts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to fright, driven by Cronin’s in-camera craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting narrative that channels the fear through a young child’s wavering subjective lens. Rating: forthcoming. Production: picture-locked. 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 re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes hot-button genre motifs and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Production: production booked 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 erupts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a different family anchored to returning horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A new start designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on classic survival-horror tone over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: closely held. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf imp source story built on period language and elemental dread. Rating: TBA. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026, why now

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that stalled or reshuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more measured 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 releases. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work repeatable beats from test screenings, managed scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will cluster across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

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

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where midrange-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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, 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 sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sound, and camera work 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand heft where it matters, creative ambition 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.