Primordial Evil Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding horror thriller, rolling out October 2025 on major platforms

A chilling spectral suspense story from creator / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an long-buried evil when unrelated individuals become instruments in a diabolical contest. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing depiction of living through and timeless dread that will revolutionize terror storytelling this ghoul season. Helmed by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and gothic thriller follows five unacquainted souls who arise ensnared in a far-off shelter under the sinister sway of Kyra, a female presence overtaken by a 2,000-year-old sacrosanct terror. Ready yourself to be enthralled by a audio-visual outing that combines bone-deep fear with biblical origins, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a iconic pillar in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is turned on its head when the forces no longer descend outside their bodies, but rather from deep inside. This echoes the deepest element of the cast. The result is a intense identity crisis where the story becomes a ongoing fight between light and darkness.


In a forsaken natural abyss, five young people find themselves confined under the dark control and domination of a haunted being. As the survivors becomes unresisting to escape her dominion, isolated and attacked by spirits unimaginable, they are pushed to battle their inner demons while the hours relentlessly winds toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust rises and bonds dissolve, driving each person to doubt their essence and the concept of liberty itself. The tension magnify with every short lapse, delivering a fear-soaked story that blends spiritual fright with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to tap into instinctual horror, an power that predates humanity, operating within our fears, and examining a darkness that peels away humanity when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra required summoning something more primal than sorrow. She is in denial until the takeover begins, and that shift is bone-chilling because it is so visceral.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be available for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing households worldwide can get immersed in this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its initial teaser, which has earned over six-figure audience.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, extending the thrill to thrill-seekers globally.


Join this haunted path of possession. Confront *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to see these nightmarish insights about the human condition.


For previews, filmmaker commentary, and alerts via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your socials and visit our film’s homepage.





The horror genre’s decisive shift: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts weaves legend-infused possession, signature indie scares, plus brand-name tremors

Moving from endurance-driven terror inspired by mythic scripture and stretching into legacy revivals as well as keen independent perspectives, 2025 is coalescing into the most variegated paired with tactically planned year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio majors stabilize the year with known properties, simultaneously platform operators load up the fall with discovery plays in concert with scriptural shivers. At the same time, the art-house flank is buoyed by the echoes of a peak 2024 circuit. Since Halloween is the prized date, the other windows are mapped with care. The fall stretch is the proving field, however this time, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are precise, thus 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: High-craft horror returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s distribution arm starts the year with a statement play: a contemporary Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. timed for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Guided by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer tapers, the Warner lot bows the concluding entry of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma as text, along with eerie supernatural rules. The stakes escalate here, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, grows the animatronic horror lineup, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror duet including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Authored and directed 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within 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 canny scheduling. No bloated canon. No franchise baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy IP: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, under Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 fear Year Ahead: brand plays, original films, and also A loaded Calendar engineered for Scares

Dek: The brand-new scare year lines up in short order with a January pile-up, subsequently spreads through midyear, and pushing into the winter holidays, braiding brand equity, creative pitches, and strategic alternatives. Major distributors and platforms are betting on right-sized spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and buzz-forward plans that frame genre titles into mainstream chatter.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has shown itself to be the most reliable swing in studio lineups, a pillar that can expand when it breaks through and still insulate the floor when it misses. After 2023 demonstrated to greenlighters that cost-conscious shockers can lead mainstream conversation, the following year kept the drumbeat going with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The upswing moved into 2025, where legacy revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets made clear there is capacity for different modes, from returning installments to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a run that seems notably aligned across the major shops, with planned clusters, a balance of familiar brands and new concepts, and a reinvigorated commitment on exhibition windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital rental and home streaming.

Studio leaders note the genre now serves as a wildcard on the release plan. The genre can kick off on open real estate, deliver a easy sell for creative and vertical videos, and outpace with patrons that lean in on advance nights and keep coming through the next pass if the film satisfies. Following a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 pattern exhibits assurance in that logic. The year kicks off with a heavy January window, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a fall cadence that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The program also underscores the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and move wide at the inflection point.

A companion trend is IP cultivation across ongoing universes and established properties. The players are not just rolling another chapter. They are aiming to frame ongoing narrative with a occasion, whether that is a title design that signals a reframed mood or a ensemble decision that reconnects a next entry to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the directors behind the marquee originals are prioritizing on-set craft, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That combination delivers 2026 a solid mix of known notes and unexpected turns, which is how the genre sells abroad.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two high-profile plays that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the core, positioning the film as both a passing of the torch and a rootsy character-first story. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the narrative stance suggests a fan-service aware treatment without rehashing the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Plan for a rollout built on iconic art, first-look character reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will emphasize. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will drive broad awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format enabling quick turns to whatever leads the discourse that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is straightforward, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that mutates into a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s campaign likely to reprise off-kilter promo beats and short-cut promos that mixes affection and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s releases are presented as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a second trailer wave that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame opens a lane to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a gritty, practical-effects forward execution can feel elevated on a middle budget. Position this as a red-band summer horror shot that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio places two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, holding a dependable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is presenting as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both fans and newcomers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can boost IMAX and PLF uptake and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in immersive craft and historical speech, this time circling werewolf lore. The imprint has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is supportive.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform windowing in 2026 run on stable tracks. The Universal horror run transition to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a ordering that elevates both initial urgency and subscriber lifts in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends licensed titles with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using seasonal hubs, Halloween hubs, and curated rows to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival deals, scheduling horror entries on shorter runways and framing as events arrivals with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a tiered of tailored theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that translates talk to trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to invest in select projects with award winners or A-list packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is curating a 2026 lane with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is no-nonsense: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, updated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then working the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-driven genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many 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 surge if reception warrants. Watch 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 as a pair, using select theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Known brands versus new stories

By share, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The caveat, as ever, is audience fatigue. The preferred tactic is to package each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is underscoring character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-accented approach from a ascendant talent. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the packaging is recognizable enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night crowds.

Recent-year comps clarify the method. In 2023, a cinema-first model that respected streaming windows did not preclude a day-date try from paying off when the brand was potent. In 2024, auteur craft horror surged in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they angle differently and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters shot in tandem, builds a path for marketing to connect the chapters through relationships and themes and to leave creative active without long gaps.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the upcoming entries hint at a continued shift toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that highlights grain and menace rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing financial discipline.

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

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature craft and set design, which favor convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that underscore surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that sing on PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is full. 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 foggy reset amid bigger brand plays. The month caps 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 formidable, but the variety of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Post-January through spring build the summer base. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with Source genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. 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 late-September window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a opaque tease strategy and limited plot reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s digital partner escalates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: mood-led adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss work to survive on a lonely island as the power balance of power turns and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to fear, founded on Cronin’s hands-on craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting setup that manipulates the chill of a child’s uncertain impressions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fully shot. 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 re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that lampoons present-day genre chatter and true-crime buzz. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further opens again, with a unlucky family bound to returning horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBA. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 era-accurate language and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 and why now

Three workable forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shifted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and pared-down timelines. 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on clippable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will share space across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where 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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, 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 momentum and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, sonics, and visuals 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, Lined Up To Scare

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is franchise muscle where it helps, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the fear sell the seats.