Primordial Dread Reawakens within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled horror feature, launching Oct 2025 on major platforms

An hair-raising spiritual fright fest from storyteller / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an archaic terror when strangers become tools in a demonic ordeal. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish journey of living through and archaic horror that will reshape terror storytelling this season. Guided by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and emotionally thick screenplay follows five individuals who wake up confined in a hidden house under the malevolent grip of Kyra, a central character overtaken by a ancient scriptural evil. Be warned to be enthralled by a visual journey that intertwines bodily fright with arcane tradition, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a iconic foundation in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is challenged when the demons no longer originate externally, but rather inside them. This symbolizes the most terrifying facet of the cast. The result is a edge-of-seat internal warfare where the narrative becomes a brutal push-pull between good and evil.


In a bleak terrain, five youths find themselves marooned under the evil rule and haunting of a secretive female figure. As the team becomes incapacitated to oppose her power, disconnected and pursued by presences ungraspable, they are forced to acknowledge their emotional phantoms while the time unceasingly pushes forward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension swells and associations implode, prompting each cast member to rethink their core and the principle of decision-making itself. The threat rise with every tick, delivering a cinematic nightmare that intertwines mystical fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to channel primitive panic, an spirit older than civilization itself, feeding on soul-level flaws, and challenging a power that forces self-examination when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra called for internalizing something unfamiliar to reason. She is unseeing until the demon emerges, and that change is haunting because it is so unshielded.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure audiences globally can experience this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its original clip, which has received over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, making the film to lovers of terror across nations.


Make sure to see this mind-warping path of possession. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to uncover these dark realities about the psyche.


For featurettes, director cuts, and news from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across fan hubs and visit the film’s website.





Contemporary horror’s inflection point: 2025 across markets U.S. calendar blends ancient-possession motifs, festival-born jolts, in parallel with brand-name tremors

Spanning fight-to-live nightmare stories rooted in near-Eastern lore and extending to franchise returns together with focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as the genre’s most multifaceted and precision-timed year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. the big studios stabilize the year with established lines, in parallel streaming platforms pack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs set against ancient terrors. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is surfing the uplift from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are intentional, therefore 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige fear returns

The top end is active. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal begins the calendar with a risk-forward move: a refashioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. targeting 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 adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer wanes, Warner’s slate drops the final chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even with a familiar chassis, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: 70s style chill, trauma as theme, and a cold supernatural calculus. The bar is raised this go, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, broadens the animatronic terror cast, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It hits in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Firsts: Economy, maximum dread

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. That is a savvy move. No overweight mythology. 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.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Brands: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

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. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, guided by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trend Lines

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror resurges
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. 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. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forecast: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. 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 goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The new fright year to come: brand plays, standalone ideas, plus A loaded Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek: The incoming terror cycle builds right away with a January wave, after that flows through midyear, and running into the holidays, balancing brand heft, new concepts, and strategic calendar placement. The major players are relying on mid-range economics, theatrical exclusivity first, and viral-minded pushes that transform genre releases into mainstream chatter.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has become the dependable move in studio calendars, a category that can lift when it lands and still limit the floor when it does not. After 2023 reassured decision-makers that disciplined-budget shockers can steer the discourse, 2024 kept energy high with festival-darling auteurs and slow-burn breakouts. The head of steam extended into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and prestige plays demonstrated there is appetite for many shades, from sequel tracks to director-led originals that resonate abroad. The result for 2026 is a slate that appears tightly organized across distributors, with obvious clusters, a mix of marquee IP and fresh ideas, and a tightened stance on release windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital rental and SVOD.

Studio leaders note the category now serves as a schedule utility on the programming map. The genre can debut on almost any weekend, furnish a simple premise for marketing and social clips, and outstrip with moviegoers that lean in on preview nights and stick through the second weekend if the picture satisfies. Coming out of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 rhythm shows assurance in that engine. The calendar opens with a front-loaded January corridor, then primes spring and early summer for counterweight, while clearing room for a fall corridor that pushes into the Halloween corridor and afterwards. The map also spotlights the stronger partnership of indie arms and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and roll out at the sweet spot.

A second macro trend is brand management across connected story worlds and classic IP. Distribution groups are not just rolling another entry. They are seeking to position lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting choice that reconnects a next entry to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to material texture, practical effects and site-specific worlds. That combination delivers the 2026 slate a healthy mix of assurance and newness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount leads early with two big-ticket projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the focus, signaling it as both a succession moment and a rootsy character piece. Cameras are rolling 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 classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a rollout cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will emphasize. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue general-audience talk through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick redirects to whatever dominates the conversation that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is straightforward, somber, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an machine companion that unfolds into a dangerous lover. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on creepy live activations and quick hits that interlaces affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions 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 public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a name unveil to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s pictures are branded as auteur events, with a concept-forward tease and a later trailer push that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor opens a lane to dominate 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has proven that a visceral, practical-first style can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror surge that pushes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, sustaining a proven supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is presenting as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both fans and curious audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can fuel premium format interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror defined by textural authenticity and period speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The company has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

Streaming windows and tactics

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a tiered path that maximizes both premiere heat and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video interleaves library titles with global pickups and small theatrical windows when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in archive usage, using prominent placements, horror hubs, and programmed rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival grabs, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and turning into events rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a laddered of focused cinema runs and quick platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a discrete basis. The platform has indicated interest to acquire select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for retention when the genre conversation builds.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling 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 sell is uncomplicated: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, elevated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late-season weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then turning to the December frame to expand. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-driven genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed 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 warrants. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using limited runs to kindle evangelism that fuels their user base.

Known brands versus new stories

By skew, the 2026 slate skews toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate name recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is viewer burnout. The near-term solution is to position each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is spotlighting core character and DNA 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-flavored turn 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 marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture 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 Thursday previews.

The last three-year set illuminate the model. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not hamper a simultaneous release test 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 two-film strategy, with chapters shot in tandem, gives leeway to marketing to thread films through personae and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without extended gaps.

How the films are being made

The craft conversations behind this year’s genre telegraph a continued turn toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that leans on mood and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft spotlights before rolling out a teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and creates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta refresh that centers its original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster work and world-building, which lend themselves to convention floor stunts and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that center pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that benefit on big speakers.

Annual flow

January is loaded. 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 somber counterpoint amid headline IP. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the palette of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

February through May prime the summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil follows September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited asset reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner escalates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 demanding boss push to survive on a remote island as the power dynamic upends and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to menace, anchored by Cronin’s physical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting story that mediates the fear via a kid’s shifting POV. Rating: TBD. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

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 satirizes hot-button genre motifs and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 flares, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new family linked to old terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in true survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: to be announced. Production: underway. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 language and primal menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why this year, why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces structure 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 visual effects runs, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on social-ready stingers from test screenings, curated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Another factor is the scheduling math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will stack across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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 tempo and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October his comment is here turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, 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 grain, sound, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is recognizable IP where it plays, 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.