Primeval Evil Emerges within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding shocker, arriving October 2025 across leading streamers

An unnerving occult horror tale from storyteller / director Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an timeless malevolence when unrelated individuals become instruments in a fiendish maze. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching episode of overcoming and age-old darkness that will revamp the fear genre this harvest season. Visualized by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and immersive thriller follows five people who come to stranded in a isolated dwelling under the malignant influence of Kyra, a central character overtaken by a two-thousand-year-old ancient fiend. Get ready to be immersed by a filmic adventure that unites soul-chilling terror with biblical origins, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a legendary element in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is reimagined when the spirits no longer develop outside their bodies, but rather inside them. This mirrors the most hidden layer of each of them. The result is a gripping mental war where the intensity becomes a unyielding conflict between righteousness and malevolence.


In a remote woodland, five young people find themselves sealed under the ominous aura and curse of a enigmatic female figure. As the survivors becomes vulnerable to withstand her manipulation, disconnected and hunted by forces beyond reason, they are obligated to confront their darkest emotions while the timeline unceasingly pushes forward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust grows and friendships collapse, demanding each individual to evaluate their identity and the integrity of independent thought itself. The consequences climb with every second, delivering a fear-soaked story that merges ghostly evil with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to dig into primitive panic, an spirit from prehistory, working through fragile psyche, and challenging a spirit that erodes the self when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra meant evoking something outside normal anguish. She is uninformed until the entity awakens, and that evolution is harrowing because it is so emotional.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering viewers across the world can face this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first preview, which has received over a viral response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, extending the thrill to fans of fear everywhere.


Make sure to see this soul-jarring path of possession. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to confront these chilling revelations about human nature.


For exclusive trailers, production news, and promotions directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across social media and visit the official website.





The horror genre’s sea change: calendar year 2025 U.S. calendar blends ancient-possession motifs, independent shockers, together with legacy-brand quakes

Beginning with grit-forward survival fare drawn from near-Eastern lore through to installment follow-ups plus sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is emerging as the most complex together with intentionally scheduled year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Top studios plant stakes across the year with established lines, at the same time streamers load up the fall with new perspectives as well as legend-coded dread. Across the art-house lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is carried on the backdraft from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The fall stretch is the proving field, but this year, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, which means 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The top end is active. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal banner sets the tone with a risk-forward move: a reimagined Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. dated 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 ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. From director Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer wanes, the Warner lot unveils the final movement from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the outline is tried, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Next is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retro dread, trauma explicitly handled, plus otherworld rules that chill. This run ups the stakes, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, broadens the animatronic terror cast, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It hits in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Digital Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a close quarters body horror study with 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 toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No overinflated mythology. No continuity burden. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are more runway than museum.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy IP: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

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

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Big screen is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

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 next scare Year Ahead: returning titles, standalone ideas, plus A loaded Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new horror cycle builds from the jump with a January pile-up, subsequently spreads through June and July, and pushing into the year-end corridor, weaving brand equity, untold stories, and savvy counterweight. Studios and platforms are prioritizing cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and social-driven marketing that elevate the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror sector has shown itself to be the most reliable swing in studio lineups, a genre that can grow when it resonates and still mitigate the losses when it underperforms. After 2023 reminded buyers that efficiently budgeted chillers can command the discourse, the following year maintained heat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and surprise hits. The momentum translated to 2025, where reboots and prestige plays made clear there is space for many shades, from brand follow-ups to fresh IP that export nicely. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a slate that reads highly synchronized across the field, with purposeful groupings, a combination of established brands and new concepts, and a refocused focus on cinema windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on paid VOD and home platforms.

Planners observe the genre now serves as a swing piece on the grid. The genre can roll out on open real estate, generate a easy sell for marketing and social clips, and outperform with demo groups that appear on previews Thursday and sustain through the week two if the feature hits. Following a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm telegraphs confidence in that engine. The slate kicks off with a loaded January window, then plants flags in spring and early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a fall corridor that pushes into Halloween and into early November. The program also illustrates the deeper integration of specialty arms and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, generate chatter, and move wide at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across shared universes and legacy IP. Studios are not just making another continuation. They are setting up lore continuity with a occasion, whether that is a art treatment that announces a new tone or a casting move that threads a next entry to a original cycle. At the simultaneously, the auteurs behind the top original plays are embracing real-world builds, physical gags and specific settings. That fusion produces 2026 a solid mix of comfort and freshness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount plants an early flag with two big-ticket moves that live at opposite ends of the tone More about the author spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward character piece. Production is active in Atlanta, and the directional approach suggests a legacy-leaning approach without going over the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Watch for a push leaning on heritage visuals, first-look character reveals, and a rollout cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via 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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will feature. As a summer relief option, this one will hunt four-quadrant chatter through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format supporting quick reframes to whatever shapes horror talk that spring.

Universal has three discrete projects. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is simple, grief-rooted, and concept-forward: a grieving man onboards an intelligent companion that mutates into a killer companion. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo viral uncanny stunts and snackable content that melds devotion and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a proper title to become an earned moment closer to the early tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s pictures are set up as must-see filmmaker statements, with a hinting teaser and a second wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween runway gives Universal room to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on 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 directs, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has demonstrated that a visceral, prosthetic-heavy method can feel premium on a controlled budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror surge that pushes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, maintaining a evergreen supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is positioning as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both franchise faithful and casuals. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign pieces around narrative world, and creature builds, elements that can fuel premium booking interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in textural authenticity and archaic language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

Platform lanes and windowing

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s releases feed copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a tiered path that fortifies both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the tail. Prime Video will mix outside acquisitions with worldwide buys and brief theater runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in deep cuts, using timely promos, October hubs, and programmed rows to keep attention on the 2026 genre total. Netflix stays opportunistic about in-house releases and festival pickups, finalizing horror entries near their drops and positioning as event drops arrivals with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a hybrid of limited theatrical footprints and swift platform pivots that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to invest in select projects with recognized filmmakers or star packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 slate with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is clear: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, recalibrated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a theatrical-first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the back half.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday slot to expand. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception merits. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using mini theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By volume, the 2026 slate tips toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The concern, as ever, is overexposure. The go-to fix is to package each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is leading with character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-tinted vision from a ascendant talent. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the configuration is assuring enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Three-year comps make sense of the approach. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that respected streaming windows did not obstruct a day-date try from paying off when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror hit big in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they angle differently and widen scale. 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, allows marketing to connect the chapters through personae and themes and to continue assets in field without pause points.

Craft and creative trends

The craft conversations behind the 2026 slate suggest a continued tilt toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that spotlights aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft coverage before rolling out a tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall 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 big-screen case feel must-have. Look for trailers that accent razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that work in PLF.

Month-by-month map

January is jammed. 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 quiet contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the variety of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Late Q1 and spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a minimalist tease strategy and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences 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 in progress as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s machine mate becomes something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss scramble to survive on a isolated island as the pecking order shifts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to nightmare, rooted in Cronin’s tactile craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting premise that routes the horror through a youngster’s uncertain internal vantage. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A satirical comeback that teases hot-button genre motifs and true-crime buzz. Rating: to be announced. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 bursts, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further reopens, with a another family snared by older hauntings. Rating: TBD. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A new start designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-driven horror over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBA. Production: moving forward. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 historical diction and raw menace. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three workable forces structure this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-sequenced in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly 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 drops. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, curated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will coexist across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

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

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

How the year flows for audiences

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

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound field, 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.

A Promising 2026

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is name recognition where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shudders sell the seats.