Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primordial evil, a nerve shredding feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

An unnerving unearthly terror film from screenwriter / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an long-buried entity when guests become victims in a malevolent struggle. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish chronicle of survival and mythic evil that will revolutionize the fear genre this spooky time. Directed by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and moody tale follows five unacquainted souls who arise stranded in a remote shelter under the dark rule of Kyra, a troubled woman inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old biblical demon. Be prepared to be absorbed by a narrative outing that harmonizes deep-seated panic with timeless legends, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a enduring concept in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reversed when the dark entities no longer arise from a different plane, but rather from their core. This marks the most primal element of the group. The result is a intense spiritual tug-of-war where the intensity becomes a merciless confrontation between purity and corruption.


In a barren backcountry, five figures find themselves imprisoned under the ghastly aura and grasp of a unidentified person. As the survivors becomes paralyzed to deny her manipulation, marooned and chased by terrors beyond comprehension, they are required to encounter their inner horrors while the timeline brutally counts down toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear grows and ties erode, urging each protagonist to challenge their existence and the foundation of liberty itself. The intensity grow with every passing moment, delivering a fear-soaked story that integrates otherworldly suspense with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to awaken instinctual horror, an entity rooted in antiquity, working through inner turmoil, and exposing a curse that redefines identity when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra meant channeling something darker than pain. She is in denial until the demon emerges, and that evolution is emotionally raw because it is so visceral.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for public screening beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing horror lovers no matter where they are can dive into this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first preview, which has attracted over 100K plays.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, spreading the horror to lovers of terror across nations.


Join this bone-rattling spiral into evil. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to explore these nightmarish insights about existence.


For cast commentary, production insights, and reveals straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit youngandcursed.com.





American horror’s tipping point: the 2025 season U.S. calendar fuses Mythic Possession, independent shockers, together with IP aftershocks

Moving from fight-to-live nightmare stories saturated with ancient scripture and including canon extensions in concert with incisive indie visions, 2025 is lining up as horror’s most layered as well as deliberate year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Major studios hold down the year via recognizable brands, simultaneously platform operators stack the fall with new perspectives plus mythic dread. Meanwhile, indie storytellers is catching the carry of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, however this time, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are methodical, as a result 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The top end is active. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal fires the first shot with a headline swing: a modernized Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, inside today’s landscape. Led by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. set for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Led by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early reactions hint at fangs.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner Bros. banner releases the last chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: old school creep, trauma as text, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The bar is raised this go, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, bridging teens and legacy players. It arrives in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a close quarters body horror study anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Penned and steered 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 darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one reaches back to 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.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a smart play. No overstuffed canon. No legacy baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

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 to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror swings back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forecast: Fall pileup, winter curveball

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

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The oncoming chiller release year: follow-ups, filmmaker-first projects, plus A stacked Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek The upcoming horror year crams right away with a January cluster, then rolls through the mid-year, and straight through the holidays, balancing legacy muscle, new concepts, and savvy release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are doubling down on lean spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and buzz-forward plans that convert these releases into all-audience topics.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror sector has grown into the most reliable lever in studio lineups, a space that can surge when it lands and still limit the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year showed studio brass that responsibly budgeted entries can drive social chatter, 2024 held pace with buzzy auteur projects and under-the-radar smashes. The carry carried into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and festival-grade titles showed there is space for multiple flavors, from brand follow-ups to fresh IP that play globally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across players, with planned clusters, a mix of legacy names and new packages, and a recommitted emphasis on release windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and home platforms.

Studio leaders note the horror lane now works like a versatile piece on the distribution slate. Horror can kick off on almost any weekend, furnish a clean hook for spots and TikTok spots, and punch above weight with ticket buyers that come out on early shows and maintain momentum through the second weekend if the entry fires. Exiting a work stoppage lag, the 2026 setup underscores confidence in that engine. The calendar kicks off with a thick January corridor, then plants flags in spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while leaving room for a autumn stretch that extends to All Hallows period and past Halloween. The arrangement also includes the deeper integration of specialty distributors and OTT outlets that can stage a platform run, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the proper time.

A companion trend is franchise tending across connected story worlds and classic IP. Studio teams are not just pushing another chapter. They are working to present connection with a headline quality, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a tonal shift or a talent selection that connects a latest entry to a first wave. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the marquee originals are championing hands-on technique, real effects and location-forward worlds. That convergence gives 2026 a lively combination of brand comfort and novelty, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount fires first with two big-ticket moves that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the core, signaling it as both a succession moment and a DNA-forward relationship-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the artistic posture signals a fan-service aware framework without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Look for a marketing run fueled by signature symbols, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will foreground. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will go after broad awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick reframes to whatever defines pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three defined plays. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tight, sorrow-tinged, and premise-first: a grieving man installs an virtual partner that shifts into a lethal partner. The date lines it up at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo viral uncanny stunts and short-cut promos that interlaces romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a branding reveal to become an PR pop closer to the first look. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His projects are treated as creative events, with a teaser that holds back and a later trailer push that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The late-month date opens a lane to maximize 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a raw, physical-effects centered aesthetic can feel premium on a efficient spend. Expect a grime-caked summer horror jolt that centers foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, sustaining a evergreen supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is billing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both longtime followers and new audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around canon, and creature work, elements that can lift deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

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 carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror defined by textural authenticity and archaic language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s slate head to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that boosts both premiere heat and sub growth in the later phase. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with global acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog discovery, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix films and festival wins, securing horror entries closer to drop and positioning as event drops arrivals with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has been willing to acquire select projects with prestige directors or marquee packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation swells.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 slate with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is clear: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, refined for modern audio-visual craft. 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 announced a standard theatrical run for see here Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the September weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday corridor to open out. That positioning has paid off for elevated genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches imp source at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using precision theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their audience.

IP versus fresh ideas

By tilt, the 2026 slate bends toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit brand equity. The concern, as ever, is overexposure. The operating solution is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is underscoring character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a European tilt from a buzzed-about director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and visionary-led titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the cast-creatives package is known enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

The last three-year set help explain the approach. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that held distribution windows did not foreclose a same-day experiment from performing when the brand was robust. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror popped in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they angle differently and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, lets marketing to connect the chapters through character web and themes and to hold creative in the market without extended gaps.

Behind-the-camera trends

The craft rooms behind the upcoming entries suggest a continued bias toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that foregrounds aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft coverage before rolling out a preview that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature craft and set design, which fit with convention floor stunts and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel irresistible. Look for trailers that center surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in big rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is full. 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 foggy reset amid headline IP. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the menu of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Early-year through spring seed summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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 lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited information drops that put concept first.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot horror with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s synthetic partner becomes something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: aura-driven 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 work to survive on a far-flung island as the power dynamic tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to nightmare, built on Cronin’s practical craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting chiller that plays with the panic of a child’s mercurial point of view. Rating: pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult 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 spoof revival that riffs on current genre trends and true crime fixations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: cameras due to roll 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: forthcoming. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new family snared by residual nightmares. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward true survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBA. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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-precise speech and raw menace. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026, why now

Three practical forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-slotted in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic 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 dumps. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, curated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

The slot calculus is real. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can seize a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will compete across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

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

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

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand power where it counts, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shocks sell the seats.