Primeval Evil Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across leading streamers

An frightening paranormal shockfest from writer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an age-old evil when guests become pawns in a hellish ordeal. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching depiction of resilience and primordial malevolence that will reconstruct fear-driven cinema this ghoul season. Realized by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and immersive cinema piece follows five characters who are stirred trapped in a wooded cottage under the sinister grip of Kyra, a female lead possessed by a biblical-era ancient fiend. Anticipate to be captivated by a filmic display that harmonizes visceral dread with mythic lore, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a time-honored trope in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is reimagined when the forces no longer form from external sources, but rather within themselves. This marks the most hidden element of the protagonists. The result is a psychologically brutal inner struggle where the drama becomes a ongoing face-off between heaven and hell.


In a haunting backcountry, five youths find themselves trapped under the fiendish influence and grasp of a uncanny female presence. As the survivors becomes incapable to deny her will, abandoned and stalked by evils indescribable, they are pushed to reckon with their deepest fears while the hours relentlessly edges forward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety swells and associations erode, forcing each cast member to doubt their values and the structure of liberty itself. The intensity magnify with every tick, delivering a scare-fueled ride that merges unearthly horror with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to awaken pure dread, an presence beyond time, filtering through inner turmoil, and challenging a power that strips down our being when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra asked for exploring something darker than pain. She is innocent until the curse activates, and that shift is harrowing because it is so deep.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for digital release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—giving streamers across the world can engage with this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its release of trailer #1, which has received over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, taking the terror to viewers around the world.


Mark your calendar for this bone-rattling path of possession. Experience *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to dive into these fearful discoveries about the psyche.


For exclusive trailers, set experiences, and alerts from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursed across online outlets and visit the official website.





Current horror’s inflection point: 2025 in focus U.S. release slate braids together legend-infused possession, independent shockers, together with returning-series thunder

Kicking off with survival horror steeped in ancient scripture through to legacy revivals alongside keen independent perspectives, 2025 appears poised to be the most stratified combined with intentionally scheduled year in years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. Top studios lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, in tandem platform operators crowd the fall with new perspectives and legend-coded dread. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is surfing the uplift from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, notably this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium genre swings back

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal Pictures leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a reconceived Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Slated 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 adaptation reframed as lean dread. Eli Craig directs featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer eases, the WB camp rolls out the capstone from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

After that, The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the tone that worked before is intact: throwback unease, trauma centered writing, with ghostly inner logic. The bar is raised this go, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The follow up digs further into canon, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It lands in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Offerings: Slim budgets, major punch

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a close quarters body horror study with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a near certain autumn drop.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend with Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is an astute call. No overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are more runway than museum.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. 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 such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Brands: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trends Worth Watching

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror swings back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Autumn density and winter pivot

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The next chiller slate: follow-ups, new stories, plus A stacked Calendar Built For goosebumps

Dek The arriving scare cycle packs from day one with a January bottleneck, following that stretches through the warm months, and carrying into the holiday stretch, blending name recognition, new concepts, and shrewd counterweight. Studio marketers and platforms are relying on smart costs, exclusive theatrical windows first, and shareable marketing that elevate these pictures into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror sector has emerged as the sturdy release in studio lineups, a genre that can grow when it connects and still insulate the risk when it falls short. After 2023 showed studio brass that modestly budgeted horror vehicles can galvanize social chatter, the following year held pace with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The head of steam fed into 2025, where returns and awards-minded projects proved there is an opening for diverse approaches, from ongoing IP entries to filmmaker-driven originals that translate worldwide. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a slate that presents tight coordination across distributors, with planned clusters, a harmony of household franchises and original hooks, and a reinvigorated stance on exclusive windows that feed downstream value on premium digital rental and streaming.

Marketers add the genre now acts as a fill-in ace on the slate. The genre can roll out on most weekends, generate a clean hook for creative and UGC-friendly snippets, and outperform with crowds that lean in on first-look nights and hold through the follow-up frame if the title pays off. On the heels of a production delay era, the 2026 layout indicates belief in that engine. The year kicks off with a stacked January block, then primes spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while keeping space for a fall cadence that flows toward All Hallows period and into post-Halloween. The calendar also underscores the greater integration of indie arms and streaming partners that can develop over weeks, create conversation, and widen at the proper time.

A further high-level trend is brand management across interlocking continuities and heritage properties. The players are not just making another chapter. They are trying to present brand continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a logo package that indicates a re-angled tone or a ensemble decision that threads a latest entry to a foundational era. At the alongside this, the visionaries behind the most anticipated originals are doubling down on on-set craft, physical gags and place-driven backdrops. That pairing delivers the 2026 slate a vital pairing of home base and freshness, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount sets the tone early with two centerpiece releases that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the spine, positioning the film as both a handoff and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the directional approach indicates a nostalgia-forward framework without rehashing the last two entries’ sisters storyline. The studio is likely to mount a drive rooted in heritage visuals, character previews, and a tease cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will play up. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will drive general-audience talk through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format supporting quick turns to whatever leads horror talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated entries. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tight, heartbroken, and concept-forward: a grieving man onboards an intelligent companion that escalates into a harmful mate. The date nudges it to the front of a front-loaded month, with the Universal machine likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and short-cut promos that interweaves love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under internal 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 leaves room for a final title to become an event moment closer to the debut look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele projects are marketed as signature events, with a teaser that holds back and a second trailer wave that shape mood without giving away the concept. The late-October frame gives Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has demonstrated that a blood-soaked, prosthetic-heavy style can feel high-value on a disciplined budget. Expect a blood-and-grime summer horror surge that leans into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio mounts two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, continuing a trusty supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is presenting as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both fans and new audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build materials around lore, and creature work, elements that can boost PLF interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and period speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. The distributor has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is favorable.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s genre slate shift to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a pacing that enhances both first-week urgency and subscriber lifts in the back half. Prime Video continues to mix outside acquisitions with worldwide buys and limited runs in theaters when the data supports it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in back-catalog play, using timely promos, genre hubs, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on aggregate take. Netflix remains opportunistic about original films and festival deals, dating horror entries closer to drop and making event-like rollouts with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a tiered of targeted cinema placements and short jumps to platform that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has proven amenable to take on select projects with acclaimed directors or A-list packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation surges.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is curating a 2026 track with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is simple: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, refined for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas window to broaden. That positioning has proved effective for director-led genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception warrants. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using select theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their user base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By weight, 2026 skews toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on household recognition. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand erosion. The operating solution is to package each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is bringing forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film Young & Cursed will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the packaging is grounded enough to build pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Comparable trends from recent years contextualize the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept clean windows did not hamper a day-date try from delivering when the brand was robust. In 2024, art-forward horror punched above its weight in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they shift POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to tie installments through protagonists and motifs and to sustain campaign assets without hiatuses.

How the films are being made

The director conversations behind the upcoming entries suggest a continued turn toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that centers tone and tension rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in deep-dive features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gristle and gore, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta-horror reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature execution and sets, which lend themselves to fan conventions and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel must-have. Look for trailers that accent precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

January is packed. 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 brooding contrast amid marquee brands. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the mix of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Q1 into Q2 seed summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July useful reference 24 supplies blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

August into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited previews that prioritize concept over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s AI companion escalates into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: tone-first 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 unyielding boss struggle to survive on a desolate island as the pecking order inverts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s material craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 residential haunting narrative that filters its scares through a preteen’s uneven personal vantage. Rating: TBD. Production: wrapped. 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 comic send-up that needles hot-button genre motifs and true crime preoccupations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: principal photography set 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 surges, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new household bound to ancient dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBD. Production: in progress. 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 time-true diction and ancient menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three workable forces structure this lineup. First, production that paused or re-sequenced in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and tighter 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage bite-size scare clips from test screenings, managed scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

The slot calculus is real. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will coexist across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, 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 underdog chase 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 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 journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundscape, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand gravity where needed, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.