Ancient Evil rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

One haunting mystic horror tale from storyteller / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an mythic terror when foreigners become victims in a supernatural conflict. Premiering October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving saga of resilience and old world terror that will remodel genre cinema this harvest season. Crafted by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and gothic fearfest follows five people who snap to ensnared in a isolated wooden structure under the malevolent influence of Kyra, a young woman occupied by a legendary scriptural evil. Anticipate to be drawn in by a immersive ride that combines visceral dread with ancestral stories, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a time-honored element in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is inverted when the presences no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather inside them. This mirrors the malevolent aspect of the victims. The result is a harrowing inner struggle where the plotline becomes a constant struggle between heaven and hell.


In a isolated forest, five young people find themselves sealed under the ominous dominion and inhabitation of a haunted apparition. As the characters becomes vulnerable to escape her rule, isolated and hunted by entities unfathomable, they are obligated to reckon with their emotional phantoms while the doomsday meter without pity edges forward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread surges and friendships erode, driving each protagonist to reconsider their being and the foundation of decision-making itself. The danger surge with every second, delivering a terror ride that marries unearthly horror with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to explore elemental fright, an presence rooted in antiquity, manifesting in fragile psyche, and testing a evil that redefines identity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra needed manifesting something past sanity. She is unseeing until the curse activates, and that change is haunting because it is so raw.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure watchers across the world can be part of this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first preview, which has attracted over notable views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, extending the thrill to international horror buffs.


Mark your calendar for this life-altering descent into hell. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to witness these spiritual awakenings about mankind.


For behind-the-scenes access, set experiences, and alerts from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursed across online outlets and visit the official website.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: the 2025 season U.S. calendar weaves primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, plus franchise surges

Across grit-forward survival fare steeped in primordial scripture all the way to canon extensions set beside keen independent perspectives, 2025 is lining up as the genre’s most multifaceted combined with tactically planned year of the last decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Major studios lay down anchors with franchise anchors, at the same time OTT services saturate the fall with new perspectives together with old-world menace. In the indie lane, festival-forward creators is riding the carry of 2024’s record festival wave. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, but this year, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are calculated, accordingly 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium dread reemerges

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

Universal Pictures begins the calendar with an audacious swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, inside today’s landscape. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Booked into mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Steered by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

When summer fades, Warner’s pipeline delivers the closing chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even with a familiar chassis, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Next is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the tone that worked before is intact: throwback unease, trauma as narrative engine, with ghostly inner logic. The stakes escalate here, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The follow up digs further into canon, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It arrives in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streamer Exclusives: Economy, maximum dread

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a two hander body horror spiral with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, 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 is virtually assured for fall.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No overinflated mythology. No sequel clutter. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

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

Streaming originals get teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Big screen is 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 is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

What’s Next: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. 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.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The coming 2026 Horror year to come: follow-ups, fresh concepts, in tandem with A hectic Calendar Built For shocks

Dek: The fresh horror season stacks from day one with a January cluster, following that extends through the summer months, and pushing into the festive period, combining franchise firepower, untold stories, and calculated counter-scheduling. Studios and streamers are committing to mid-range economics, theatrical exclusivity first, and platform-native promos that transform these offerings into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has grown into the consistent tool in release plans, a genre that can surge when it clicks and still buffer the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that low-to-mid budget entries can shape the discourse, the following year maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam pushed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and prestige plays underscored there is an opening for a variety of tones, from continued chapters to one-and-done originals that resonate abroad. The upshot for 2026 is a schedule that shows rare alignment across distributors, with strategic blocks, a balance of known properties and new packages, and a tightened priority on exhibition windows that increase tail monetization on premium video on demand and subscription services.

Executives say the genre now acts as a fill-in ace on the schedule. The genre can launch on a wide range of weekends, create a sharp concept for trailers and short-form placements, and punch above weight with viewers that come out on previews Thursday and stay strong through the sophomore frame if the offering pays off. In the wake of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 rhythm exhibits faith in that approach. The slate gets underway with a busy January window, then exploits spring through early summer for off-slot scheduling, while holding room for a autumn stretch that connects to the fright window and into post-Halloween. The calendar also highlights the ongoing integration of specialized imprints and digital platforms that can platform a title, create conversation, and grow at the strategic time.

A notable top-line trend is franchise tending across shared IP webs and heritage properties. The players are not just rolling another continuation. They are working to present brand continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that signals a recalibrated tone or a ensemble decision that bridges a next entry to a first wave. At the concurrently, the auteurs behind the high-profile originals are returning to in-camera technique, practical gags and site-specific worlds. That mix hands the 2026 slate a solid mix of assurance and surprise, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

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

Paramount plants an early flag with two front-of-slate bets that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the center, positioning the film as both a baton pass and a foundation-forward character-focused installment. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the narrative stance announces a heritage-honoring approach without covering again the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push centered on signature symbols, first-look character reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will stress. As a counterweight in summer, this one will hunt four-quadrant chatter through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format fitting quick switches to whatever shapes the social talk that spring.

Universal has three specific lanes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is clean, soulful, and commercial: a grieving man purchases an intelligent companion that unfolds into a murderous partner. The date slots it at the front of a stacked January, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on creepy live activations and bite-size content that interweaves love and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a name unveil to become an teaser payoff closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His entries are positioned as auteur events, with a minimalist tease and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has proven that a in-your-face, prosthetic-heavy style can feel prestige on a moderate cost. Look for a grime-caked summer horror shock that leans hard into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio launches two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is describing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both players and first-timers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build promo materials around narrative world, and creature effects, elements that can drive format premiums and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror driven by immersive craft and period language, this time circling werewolf lore. The label has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal titles head to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a structure that amplifies both opening-weekend urgency and platform bumps in the later window. Prime Video stitches together third-party pickups with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library pulls, using prominent placements, horror hubs, and curated strips to maximize the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about in-house releases and festival pickups, finalizing horror entries near their drops and making event-like releases with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a one-two of precision theatrical plays and fast windowing that drives paid trials from buzz. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to buy select projects with prestige directors or A-list packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation peaks.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 lane with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clear: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, reimagined for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a big-screen first plan for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the September weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the year-end corridor to open out. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-driven genre with crossover potential. 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 safe bet is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception drives. Keep an eye on 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 tandem, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their user base.

Brands and originals

By volume, the 2026 slate favors the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The concern, as ever, is brand wear. The workable fix is to package each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is underscoring character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a Francophone tone from a ascendant talent. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the assembly is recognizable enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years frame the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive window model that observed windows did not hamper a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was trusted. In 2024, art-forward horror punched above its weight in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they rotate perspective 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, lets marketing to connect the chapters through character web and themes and to hold creative in the market without extended gaps.

Craft and creative trends

The production chatter behind this slate telegraph a continued tilt toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that centers unease and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for red-band excess, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature and environment design, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel must-have. Look for trailers that accent razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that work in 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 atmospheric change-up amid headline IP. The month finishes 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 meaningful, but the tone spread makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Post-January through spring load in summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s 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 lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a late-September window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a slow-reveal plan and limited advance reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s virtual companion turns into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 demanding boss struggle to survive on a desolate island as the control balance swivels and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 menace, shaped by Cronin’s on-set craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Check This Out Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting chiller that refracts terror through a preteen’s uneven subjective view. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-crafted and headline-actor led supernatural mood piece.

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 send-up revival that pokes at present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: undetermined. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family snared by ancient dread. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward true survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: pending. 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: TBA. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBD. Production: in progress. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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: pending. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026 lands now

Three practical forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or reshuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more strict 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 placements. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where modest-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 surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, 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 sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, sound field, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is IP strength where it matters, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.