Age-old Evil rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

One hair-raising unearthly fright fest from author / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an mythic force when passersby become tools in a fiendish experiment. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful episode of endurance and primordial malevolence that will reconstruct horror this spooky time. Directed by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and immersive motion picture follows five people who awaken locked in a unreachable hideaway under the malevolent dominion of Kyra, a young woman inhabited by a 2,000-year-old scriptural evil. Steel yourself to be immersed by a filmic experience that harmonizes bodily fright with folklore, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a enduring element in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is subverted when the monsters no longer manifest outside their bodies, but rather deep within. This depicts the most primal dimension of each of them. The result is a riveting mental war where the story becomes a unyielding clash between virtue and vice.


In a abandoned forest, five adults find themselves isolated under the malevolent influence and haunting of a haunted being. As the group becomes powerless to resist her curse, marooned and chased by unknowns impossible to understand, they are obligated to face their core terrors while the deathwatch unforgivingly edges forward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease amplifies and links fracture, urging each participant to reconsider their personhood and the concept of free will itself. The threat escalate with every heartbeat, delivering a horror experience that fuses otherworldly panic with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to awaken primal fear, an presence before modern man, emerging via emotional vulnerability, and confronting a being that peels away humanity when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant evoking something beneath mortal despair. She is ignorant until the haunting manifests, and that pivot is bone-chilling because it is so personal.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—allowing viewers globally can face this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first trailer, which has racked up over strong viewer count.


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


Do not miss this bone-rattling voyage through terror. Confront *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to see these evil-rooted truths about the mind.


For featurettes, extra content, and press updates from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursed across social media and visit youngandcursed.com.





Modern horror’s watershed moment: 2025 for genre fans U.S. calendar melds ancient-possession motifs, festival-born jolts, paired with IP aftershocks

From pressure-cooker survival tales drawn from mythic scripture to series comebacks plus pointed art-house angles, 2025 appears poised to be the most stratified in tandem with blueprinted year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. major banners stabilize the year with franchise anchors, in tandem streaming platforms front-load the fall with first-wave breakthroughs in concert with scriptural shivers. On the independent axis, horror’s indie wing is fueled by the uplift from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. With Halloween holding the peak, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, however this time, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are disciplined, so 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the base, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal banner lights the fuse with a confident swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a modern-day environment. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. timed for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Led by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer tapers, the Warner Bros. banner bows the concluding entry from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: nostalgic menace, trauma as text, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time, the stakes are raised, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The return delves further into myth, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It drops in December, cornering year end horror.

SVOD Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a two hander body horror spiral pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story starring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Penned and steered 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. 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 platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a calculated bet. No bloated mythology. No brand fatigue. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

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

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

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, steered by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

Signals and Trends

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror resurges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Laurels convert to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forward View: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The new terror year to come: entries, new stories, alongside A brimming Calendar engineered for screams

Dek The fresh genre season builds early with a January cluster, subsequently runs through the mid-year, and deep into the year-end corridor, braiding marquee clout, untold stories, and calculated release strategy. Distributors with platforms are focusing on right-sized spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and social-fueled campaigns that frame these offerings into national conversation.

Horror momentum into 2026

The field has turned into the sturdy tool in studio lineups, a space that can scale when it catches and still protect the losses when it does not. After 2023 reconfirmed for executives that lean-budget scare machines can command social chatter, the following year maintained heat with visionary-driven titles and surprise hits. The carry translated to the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and festival-grade titles showed there is capacity for several lanes, from continued chapters to fresh IP that translate worldwide. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a schedule that reads highly synchronized across the industry, with mapped-out bands, a harmony of familiar brands and original hooks, and a renewed stance on release windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital rental and SVOD.

Executives say the horror lane now functions as a wildcard on the grid. Horror can open on many corridors, provide a easy sell for promo reels and TikTok spots, and punch above weight with ticket buyers that line up on Thursday nights and continue through the second weekend if the picture fires. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 cadence signals trust in that approach. The year gets underway with a busy January block, then targets spring into early summer for off-slot scheduling, while carving room for a October build that carries into spooky season and afterwards. The program also highlights the increasing integration of specialty arms and OTT outlets that can build gradually, generate chatter, and widen at the sweet spot.

An added macro current is brand curation across connected story worlds and legacy franchises. Major shops are not just making another chapter. They are trying to present brand continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a art treatment that flags a recalibrated tone or a star attachment that ties a new installment to a heyday. At the same time, the creative leads behind the high-profile originals are embracing hands-on technique, on-set effects and site-specific worlds. That convergence provides the 2026 slate a vital pairing of known notes and newness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount marks the early tempo with two spotlight pushes 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 front, signaling it as both a cross-generational handoff and a back-to-basics relationship-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the story approach signals a classic-referencing mode without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Watch for a push built on iconic art, character previews, and a promo sequence slated for 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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will spotlight. As a summer contrast play, this one will build four-quadrant chatter through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format fitting quick pivots to whatever defines the social talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated strategies. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tidy, loss-driven, and premise-first: a grieving man onboards an algorithmic mate that turns into a killer companion. The date lines it up at the front of a thick month, with the Universal machine likely to replay strange in-person beats and brief clips that interlaces longing and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under temporary 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 reserves space for a public title to become an marketing beat closer to the teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His entries are sold as signature events, with a hinting teaser and a next wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has long shown that a gnarly, practical-effects forward execution can feel premium on a lean spend. Look for a gore-forward summer horror shock that leans hard into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, keeping a steady supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is calling a ground-zero 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 well-defined brief to serve both franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify IMAX and PLF uptake and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in immersive craft and historical speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. The specialty arm has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is supportive.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform windowing in 2026 run on stable tracks. The Universal horror run move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ordering that elevates both initial urgency and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video will mix licensed titles with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library curation, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and programmed rows to increase tail value on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about Netflix originals and festival acquisitions, locking in horror entries closer to drop and making event-like launches with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a two-step of precision releases and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a discrete basis. The platform has proven amenable to invest in select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly activity when the genre conversation intensifies.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 sequence with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is simple: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, refined for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the October weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, escorting the title through festivals in the fall if my review here the cut is ready, then using the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has paid off for craft-driven horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception warrants. Keep an eye on 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 as a pair, using select theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By weight, 2026 favors the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit legacy awareness. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to pitch each entry as a new angle. Paramount is emphasizing character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a Francophone tone from a ascendant talent. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the assembly is recognizable enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday previews.

Recent-year comps clarify the template. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that preserved streaming windows did not deter a dual release from winning when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror hit big in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, builds a path for marketing to bridge entries through relationships and themes and to keep assets in-market without extended gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The filmmaking conversations behind this slate indicate a continued shift toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that leans on tone and tension rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft journalism and technical spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a self-aware reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature design and production design, which are ideal for con floor moments and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that emphasize disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that benefit on big speakers.

Month-by-month map

January is stacked. Universal’s 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 gloomy counterbalance amid heftier brand moves. 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 credible, but the palette of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth endures.

Late winter and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a opaque tease strategy and limited advance reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and card redemption.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s algorithmic partner grows into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 widens 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: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 severe boss try to survive on a far-flung island as the control balance tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s hands-on craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting chiller that teases the horror of a child’s wobbly point of view. Rating: to be announced. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-crafted and toplined ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime obsessions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 spreads, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a fresh family snared by older hauntings. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-driven horror over action spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: undetermined. Production: ongoing. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 bone-deep menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 lands now

Three grounded forces organize this lineup. First, production that paused or rearranged in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify repeatable beats from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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

The sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where value-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundscape, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand heft where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, guard the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.