Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streamers

One unnerving unearthly shockfest from storyteller / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an age-old horror when foreigners become puppets in a satanic experiment. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving journey of perseverance and archaic horror that will alter the horror genre this cool-weather season. Visualized by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and cinematic screenplay follows five lost souls who regain consciousness locked in a cut-off hideaway under the menacing command of Kyra, a haunted figure haunted by a ancient holy text monster. Steel yourself to be ensnared by a screen-based event that intertwines intense horror with ancestral stories, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a iconic narrative in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is reimagined when the beings no longer originate from an outside force, but rather from their psyche. This marks the grimmest shade of the players. The result is a gripping psychological battle where the intensity becomes a merciless face-off between light and darkness.


In a haunting woodland, five souls find themselves trapped under the possessive force and possession of a unidentified spirit. As the characters becomes paralyzed to oppose her rule, cut off and preyed upon by creatures beyond comprehension, they are obligated to confront their core terrors while the timeline unforgivingly ticks onward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia surges and ties crack, urging each participant to contemplate their true nature and the idea of autonomy itself. The intensity accelerate with every breath, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that weaves together demonic fright with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to draw upon core terror, an entity that existed before mankind, feeding on emotional vulnerability, and dealing with a spirit that forces self-examination when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra involved tapping into something beneath mortal despair. She is in denial until the entity awakens, and that shift is bone-chilling because it is so internal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for horror fans beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that customers across the world can be part of this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its intro video, which has received over massive response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, giving access to the movie to horror fans worldwide.


Do not miss this haunted spiral into evil. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to acknowledge these dark realities about existence.


For featurettes, special features, and promotions from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit our horror hub.





The horror genre’s Turning Point: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule melds ancient-possession motifs, signature indie scares, together with IP aftershocks

Running from survivor-centric dread saturated with near-Eastern lore and onward to IP renewals set beside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is emerging as the genre’s most multifaceted in tandem with calculated campaign year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio powerhouses plant stakes across the year with known properties, even as premium streamers flood the fall with debut heat plus legend-coded dread. Meanwhile, festival-forward creators is buoyed by the echoes of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are precise, and 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige fear returns

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the base, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal Pictures opens the year with a marquee bet: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, within a sleek contemporary canvas. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. targeting mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Guided by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline drops the final chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: vintage toned fear, trauma as theme, and a cold supernatural calculus. Here the stakes rise, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It bows in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Plays: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

More contained by design is Together, a tight space body horror vignette led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is a lock for fall streaming.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. 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.

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 looks like sharp programming. No overstuffed canon. No sequel clutter. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, guided by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

What to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror reemerges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

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, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The oncoming chiller slate: continuations, new stories, alongside A stacked Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek The new genre season builds up front with a January bottleneck, from there rolls through peak season, and well into the December corridor, weaving IP strength, novel approaches, and smart release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are leaning into lean spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and short-form initiatives that position the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

The horror sector has shown itself to be the dependable release in distribution calendars, a space that can accelerate when it breaks through and still cushion the losses when it under-delivers. After 2023 re-taught leaders that lean-budget chillers can command pop culture, 2024 maintained heat with festival-darling auteurs and word-of-mouth wins. The head of steam carried into the 2025 frame, where returns and awards-minded projects highlighted there is demand for different modes, from franchise continuations to fresh IP that carry overseas. The upshot for 2026 is a calendar that looks unusually coordinated across the industry, with defined corridors, a combination of familiar brands and new packages, and a recommitted strategy on cinema windows that enhance post-theatrical value on paid VOD and digital services.

Executives say the genre now operates like a versatile piece on the distribution slate. The genre can open on a wide range of weekends, furnish a quick sell for previews and social clips, and overperform with viewers that come out on Thursday nights and stay strong through the subsequent weekend if the entry hits. Exiting a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 plan exhibits trust in that engine. The calendar begins with a heavy January corridor, then turns to spring and early summer for counterweight, while leaving room for a autumn push that extends to late October and into November. The gridline also shows the increasing integration of indie arms and streaming partners that can build gradually, build word of mouth, and scale up at the proper time.

Another broad trend is IP cultivation across brand ecosystems and long-running brands. The players are not just mounting another continuation. They are aiming to frame story carry-over with a occasion, whether that is a title presentation that broadcasts a tonal shift or a casting pivot that bridges a next entry to a first wave. At the alongside this, the helmers behind the eagerly awaited originals are favoring in-camera technique, real effects and site-specific worlds. That alloy delivers the 2026 slate a confident blend of recognition and novelty, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two high-profile projects that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the heart, angling it as both a relay and a DNA-forward character-forward chapter. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach hints at a heritage-honoring treatment without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Plan for a rollout stacked with classic imagery, character previews, and a tiered teaser plan timed to late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites 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 creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will spotlight. As a summer relief option, this one will go after mass reach through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick pivots to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, grief-rooted, and concept-forward: a grieving man purchases an synthetic partner that mutates into a perilous partner. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to echo off-kilter promo beats and brief clips that threads devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a branding reveal to become an attention spike horror movies closer to the first look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s work are treated as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a next wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date allows Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a visceral, in-camera leaning style can feel big on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror shock that emphasizes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio mounts two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a dependable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is calling a reimagined restart 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 charge to serve both loyalists and general audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build marketing units around mythos, and creature builds, elements that can drive large-format demand and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in textural authenticity and historical speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The specialty arm has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is positive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on tested paths. The studio’s horror films shift to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a pacing that amplifies both FOMO and viewer acquisition in the downstream. Prime Video will mix acquired titles with global acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data points to it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using prominent placements, Halloween hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix originals and festival wins, locking in horror entries tight to release and staging as events drops with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a curated basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to pick up select projects with accomplished filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for platform stickiness when the genre conversation builds.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 arc with two brand-forward moves. 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 brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, modernized 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. The distributor has telegraphed a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then pressing the year-end corridor to go wider. That positioning has worked well for auteur horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception supports. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited runs to ignite evangelism that fuels their audience.

IP versus fresh ideas

By tilt, the 2026 slate skews toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on name recognition. The caveat, as ever, is viewer burnout. The near-term solution is to frame each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is spotlighting relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French sensibility from a ascendant talent. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the team and cast is recognizable enough to generate pre-sales and first-night audiences.

The last three-year set illuminate the model. In 2023, a cinema-first model that maintained windows did not deter a day-date try from winning when the brand was robust. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror punched above its weight in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they rotate perspective and elevate scope. 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 double feature plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, creates space for marketing to cross-link entries through relationships and themes and to continue assets in field without doldrums.

Technique and craft currents

The shop talk behind this slate signal a continued move toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that emphasizes tone and tension rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft coverage before rolling out a tease that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta pivot that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature execution and sets, which align with convention floor stunts and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel compelling. Look for trailers that center hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the mix of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Q1 into Q2 tee up summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a slow-reveal plan and limited plot reveals that elevate concept over story.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s founding notes. 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 intelligent companion grows into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 severe boss work to survive on a rugged island as the power dynamic inverts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

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 renewed vision that returns the monster to fright, anchored by Cronin’s physical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting setup that explores the fright of a child’s fragile read. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-grade and celebrity-led supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that pokes at in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: undetermined. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new clan caught in returning horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-driven horror over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: pending. Production: active. 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 period-specific language and elemental dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three execution-level forces organize this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-slotted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical 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 premieres. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage bite-size scare clips from test screenings, select scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will trade weekends across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where lean-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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, 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 pace and range. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to stage 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 deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, sonics, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is recognizable IP where it plays, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.