Antediluvian Evil Stirs within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding supernatural thriller, launching Oct 2025 on top digital platforms

One unnerving mystic fear-driven tale from screenwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an forgotten dread when unknowns become instruments in a malevolent maze. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing episode of continuance and age-old darkness that will reimagine the horror genre this season. Created by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and cinematic motion picture follows five characters who come to caught in a secluded house under the ominous grip of Kyra, a haunted figure inhabited by a biblical-era ancient fiend. Ready yourself to be gripped by a visual journey that intertwines raw fear with biblical origins, coming 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 recurring foundation in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is redefined when the demons no longer form outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This portrays the most sinister shade of each of them. The result is a edge-of-seat mind game where the suspense becomes a merciless confrontation between light and darkness.


In a barren terrain, five souls find themselves stuck under the fiendish presence and inhabitation of a unidentified entity. As the cast becomes defenseless to fight her will, stranded and preyed upon by presences unfathomable, they are compelled to endure their emotional phantoms while the timeline ruthlessly edges forward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion amplifies and connections implode, requiring each cast member to challenge their essence and the integrity of freedom of choice itself. The hazard amplify with every instant, delivering a nightmarish journey that weaves together supernatural terror with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to tap into raw dread, an threat that existed before mankind, working through emotional vulnerability, and examining a being that dismantles free will when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra asked for exploring something rooted in terror. She is ignorant until the takeover begins, and that turn is eerie because it is so visceral.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for digital release beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring subscribers anywhere can engage with this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original clip, which has gathered over massive response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, delivering the story to fans of fear everywhere.


Do not miss this heart-stopping trip into the unknown. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to explore these nightmarish insights about mankind.


For previews, director cuts, and promotions from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your favorite networks and visit youngandcursed.com.





Today’s horror major pivot: calendar year 2025 U.S. release slate fuses biblical-possession ideas, underground frights, set against franchise surges

From last-stand terror grounded in mythic scripture as well as installment follow-ups in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is tracking to be horror’s most layered combined with carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. leading studios bookend the months with franchise anchors, in parallel digital services saturate the fall with debut heat in concert with old-world menace. In parallel, the artisan tier is drafting behind the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the other windows are mapped with care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, however this time, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are methodical, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are assertive. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline starts the year with a confident swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a modern-day environment. Under director Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. set for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule drops the final chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson re engages, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: throwback unease, trauma as text, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time the stakes climb, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The next entry deepens the tale, thickens the animatronic pantheon, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It posts in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Firsts: Tight funds, wide impact

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by 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.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. That is a savvy move. No overstuffed canon. No series drag. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

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

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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

Trends Worth Watching

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forecast: Autumn density and winter pivot

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 such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The coming 2026 spook slate: continuations, non-franchise titles, alongside A packed Calendar optimized for shocks

Dek: The arriving genre year crams at the outset with a January glut, subsequently flows through the summer months, and pushing into the year-end corridor, braiding brand heft, new concepts, and shrewd release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are prioritizing cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and short-form initiatives that shape these releases into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

The genre has become the sturdy option in distribution calendars, a category that can surge when it breaks through and still insulate the liability when it misses. After 2023 reconfirmed for decision-makers that disciplined-budget chillers can own social chatter, the following year continued the surge with high-profile filmmaker pieces and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam translated to the 2025 frame, where revivals and arthouse crossovers made clear there is a market for a variety of tones, from continued chapters to one-and-done originals that travel well. The result for 2026 is a run that seems notably aligned across companies, with intentional bunching, a mix of recognizable IP and fresh ideas, and a reinvigorated strategy on cinema windows that enhance post-theatrical value on paid VOD and subscription services.

Planners observe the space now serves as a flex slot on the programming map. Horror can arrive on numerous frames, yield a clean hook for trailers and short-form placements, and outperform with moviegoers that arrive on early shows and return through the week two if the movie fires. Post a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 plan indicates assurance in that dynamic. The calendar starts with a heavy January stretch, then primes spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while carving room for a autumn stretch that connects to spooky season and afterwards. The program also reflects the continuing integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can platform a title, fuel WOM, and move wide at the inflection point.

A companion trend is brand management across ongoing universes and long-running brands. Studios are not just rolling another installment. They are moving to present brand continuity with a occasion, whether that is a art treatment that conveys a new tone or a lead change that ties a next entry to a classic era. At the in tandem, the writer-directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are championing tactile craft, physical gags and specific settings. That convergence offers the 2026 slate a strong blend of home base and discovery, which is why the genre exports well.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount sets the tone early with two big-ticket moves that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, positioning the film as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode character-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the narrative stance points to a memory-charged angle without recycling the last two entries’ family thread. Count on a promo wave centered on recognizable motifs, intro reveals, and a rollout cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will lean on. As a summer contrast play, this one will chase mainstream recognition through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format permitting quick turns to whatever leads horror talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated pushes. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is tidy, soulful, and commercial: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that grows into a lethal partner. The date lines it up at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s campaign likely to replay odd public stunts and bite-size content that fuses affection and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a name unveil to become an PR pop closer to the teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s work are marketed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a next wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date offers Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to 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 steers, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has proven that a tactile, physical-effects centered approach can feel deluxe on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a red-band summer horror blast that emphasizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, maintaining a consistent supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is marketing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both longtime followers and novices. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around narrative world, and monster craft, elements that can increase IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on meticulous craft and period language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The company has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is robust.

Streaming windows and tactics

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s releases feed copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that elevates both FOMO and platform bumps in the later window. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with global acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and staff picks to sustain interest on aggregate take. Netflix stays opportunistic about first-party entries and festival acquisitions, scheduling horror entries closer to drop and elevating as drops releases with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a one-two of tailored theatrical exposure and quick platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a situational basis. The platform has shown a willingness to invest in select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly activity when the genre conversation spikes.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 slate with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is no-nonsense: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, refined for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then using the holiday dates to expand. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-driven genre with broader reach. 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 fair assumption is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Do not be surprised by 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 jointly, using small theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By share, 2026 is weighted toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage marquee value. The question, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to market each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is spotlighting character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-accented approach from a fresh helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and visionary-led titles provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the cast-creatives package is assuring enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years frame the plan. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that respected streaming windows did not preclude a day-and-date experiment from delivering when the brand was strong. In 2024, precision craft horror punched above its weight in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances 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 shot in tandem, allows marketing to bridge entries through protagonists and motifs and to hold creative in the market without pause points.

Craft and creative trends

The filmmaking conversations behind 2026 horror signal a continued preference for real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that foregrounds aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead press and technical spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that withholds plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta refresh that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster realization and design, which match well with con floor moments and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that accent pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that explode in larger rooms.

Annual flow

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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. The month closes click site with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the mix of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls 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 lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genetic code. 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 algorithmic partner mutates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: gothic-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 tough boss push to survive on a isolated island as the control dynamic reverses and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: A-list survival chiller 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 modern reconception that returns the monster to terror, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting piece that mediates the fear via a minor’s uneven personal vantage. Rating: rating pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-crafted and celebrity-led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A spoof revival that pokes at hot-button genre motifs and true crime fixations. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras due to roll 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 ignites, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household entangled with long-buried horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward true survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: to be announced. Production: continuing. 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 historical diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces define this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-sequenced in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming releases. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, metered scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can seize a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will line up across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, tight deployments, 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 detail, sound, 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand equity where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shocks sell the seats.