Age-old Evil awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled supernatural thriller, rolling out October 2025 on premium platforms

This chilling spectral thriller from dramatist / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an mythic terror when drifters become proxies in a supernatural contest. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing saga of living through and primeval wickedness that will redefine horror this season. Created by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and moody screenplay follows five unknowns who snap to trapped in a hidden dwelling under the aggressive rule of Kyra, a female lead inhabited by a biblical-era religious nightmare. Anticipate to be enthralled by a cinematic venture that integrates visceral dread with ancestral stories, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a iconic concept in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is turned on its head when the presences no longer emerge from an outside force, but rather internally. This suggests the most terrifying corner of the group. The result is a gripping psychological battle where the plotline becomes a relentless contest between righteousness and malevolence.


In a abandoned wild, five teens find themselves imprisoned under the ominous sway and possession of a unknown figure. As the team becomes unresisting to evade her manipulation, severed and targeted by terrors mind-shattering, they are thrust to encounter their inner demons while the time without pity ticks toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust escalates and associations break, pressuring each member to examine their core and the notion of autonomy itself. The consequences magnify with every fleeting time, delivering a nightmarish journey that blends occult fear with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to uncover instinctual horror, an darkness that predates humanity, working through emotional fractures, and testing a darkness that redefines identity when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra meant channeling something past sanity. She is uninformed until the spirit seizes her, and that transition is deeply unsettling because it is so unshielded.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that horror lovers from coast to coast can witness this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its original clip, which has pulled in over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, offering the tale to global fright lovers.


Make sure to see this unforgettable path of possession. Face *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to experience these terrifying truths about the soul.


For behind-the-scenes access, making-of footage, and announcements via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across platforms and visit the official movie site.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: 2025 across markets U.S. rollouts blends myth-forward possession, festival-born jolts, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from fight-to-live nightmare stories grounded in mythic scripture and extending to legacy revivals in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is shaping up as the most textured combined with strategic year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. top-tier distributors are anchoring the year with familiar IP, even as digital services pack the fall with emerging auteurs paired with scriptural shivers. Meanwhile, the artisan tier is drafting behind the backdraft of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and now, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are precise, thus 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s slate begins the calendar with a bold swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in an immediate now. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Booked into mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Guided by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer winds down, the Warner Bros. banner releases the last chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Next is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: retrograde shiver, trauma explicitly handled, and eerie supernatural logic. The stakes escalate here, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The next entry deepens the tale, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It bows in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a two hander body horror spiral led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by 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 threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No overinflated mythology. No brand fatigue. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, under Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. 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.

Dials to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror retakes ground
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The remainder goes 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 all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The upcoming fear year to come: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, together with A loaded Calendar engineered for chills

Dek: The incoming terror year clusters up front with a January wave, subsequently flows through the summer months, and continuing into the holiday stretch, blending name recognition, novel approaches, and calculated counterprogramming. The major players are focusing on efficient budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and buzz-forward plans that convert these films into all-audience topics.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The horror sector has proven to be the bankable move in studio calendars, a lane that can expand when it performs and still cushion the exposure when it does not. After the 2023 year reminded strategy teams that disciplined-budget chillers can own social chatter, 2024 carried the beat with director-led heat and surprise hits. The energy fed into 2025, where reawakened brands and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is capacity for different modes, from returning installments to original one-offs that export nicely. The takeaway for 2026 is a roster that shows rare alignment across the field, with obvious clusters, a mix of familiar brands and new concepts, and a reinvigorated priority on release windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium rental and SVOD.

Studio leaders note the genre now slots in as a fill-in ace on the programming map. Horror can premiere on numerous frames, supply a clear pitch for trailers and social clips, and lead with viewers that respond on previews Thursday and hold through the subsequent weekend if the picture satisfies. Emerging from a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 plan shows belief in that setup. The slate kicks off with a heavy January schedule, then leans on spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while making space for a fall cadence that extends to All Hallows period and past Halloween. The layout also underscores the continuing integration of boutique distributors and home platforms that can launch in limited release, stoke social talk, and expand at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is franchise tending across shared universes and long-running brands. Studio teams are not just producing another next film. They are trying to present connection with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a re-angled tone or a star attachment that connects a fresh chapter to a original cycle. At the very same time, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to tactile craft, practical effects and location-forward worlds. That alloy offers the 2026 slate a robust balance of familiarity and shock, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount leads early with two front-of-slate projects that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the heart, presenting it as both a cross-generational handoff and a origin-leaning character-forward chapter. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the story approach conveys a heritage-honoring mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave centered on legacy iconography, intro reveals, and a promo sequence timed to late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots 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 headline the campaign will lean on. As a summer relief option, this one will seek wide buzz through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick pivots to whatever tops pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is crisp, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man installs an AI companion that shifts into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate eerie street stunts and short reels that fuses companionship and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a name unveil to become an teaser payoff closer to the early tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele projects are presented as signature events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second trailer wave that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor gives the studio room to fill 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 steers, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has consistently shown that a in-your-face, in-camera leaning execution can feel premium on a efficient spend. Expect a red-band summer horror rush that centers global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio mounts two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, maintaining a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is framing as a new foundation 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 franchise faithful and general audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign pieces around setting detail, and creature design, elements that can increase IMAX and PLF uptake and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror centered on careful craft and textual fidelity, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus’s team has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is favorable.

Streaming windows and tactics

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s genre entries shift to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a ordering that boosts both premiere heat and platform bumps in the downstream. Prime Video combines licensed films with cross-border buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog engagement, using prominent placements, October hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on the horror cume. Netflix retains agility about original films and festival buys, securing horror entries near their drops and eventizing debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a paired of precision theatrical plays and swift platform pivots that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to board select projects with accomplished filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is curating a 2026 pipeline with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January More about the author with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is uncomplicated: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, reimagined for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a theatrical rollout for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, piloting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday corridor to go wider. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with crossover ambitions. 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 reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception warrants. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using select theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their user base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By tilt, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap franchise value. The potential drawback, as ever, is viewer burnout. The near-term solution is to pitch each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is foregrounding character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French sensibility from a fresh helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the bundle is familiar enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent-year comps outline the method. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that maintained windows did not hamper a parallel release from performing when the brand was trusted. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror outperformed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reorient and increase ambition. 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character arcs and themes and to hold creative in the market without extended gaps.

Craft and creative trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this year’s genre point to a continued shift toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft features before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and gathers shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta recalibration that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster aesthetics and world-building, which align with convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel compelling. Look for trailers that accent pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that play in premium auditoriums.

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 brooding contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month winds down 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 credible, but the mix of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Winter into spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

August and September into October leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a pre-October slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a opaque tease strategy and limited asset reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can win the holiday when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s intelligent companion evolves into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Check This Out Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: fog-and-fear adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss scramble to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power inverts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller 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 from-today rework that returns the monster to fear, rooted in Cronin’s physical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting chiller that manipulates the dread of a child’s uncertain point of view. Rating: rating pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A satirical comeback that lampoons of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime manias. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 breaks out, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further extends again, with a unlucky family entangled with long-buried horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-driven horror over action fireworks. Rating: to be announced. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: pending. Production: proceeding. 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 antique diction and primordial menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage shareable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

The slot calculus is real. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will stack 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.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

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

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where midrange-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 shock 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. 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.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play 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 sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound field, and framing 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is recognizable IP where it plays, new vision where it lands, 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, cut sharp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shocks sell the seats.