Primeval Evil Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled feature, arriving Oct 2025 on premium platforms

A unnerving mystic terror film from author / director Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an age-old entity when outsiders become puppets in a supernatural trial. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching account of resistance and timeless dread that will resculpt the fear genre this Halloween season. Guided by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and moody cinema piece follows five unknowns who find themselves caught in a isolated structure under the sinister manipulation of Kyra, a tormented girl overtaken by a prehistoric holy text monster. Be warned to be seized by a theatrical venture that weaves together visceral dread with legendary tales, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a historical trope in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is challenged when the entities no longer appear from elsewhere, but rather internally. This depicts the most hidden part of the cast. The result is a riveting identity crisis where the suspense becomes a constant confrontation between light and darkness.


In a haunting backcountry, five souls find themselves trapped under the evil presence and overtake of a elusive person. As the group becomes paralyzed to evade her command, marooned and hunted by terrors beyond comprehension, they are made to reckon with their darkest emotions while the countdown coldly counts down toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust deepens and ties fracture, requiring each protagonist to rethink their values and the integrity of autonomy itself. The stakes mount with every short lapse, delivering a chilling narrative that fuses mystical fear with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to extract deep fear, an darkness before modern man, channeling itself through fragile psyche, and testing a entity that peels away humanity when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra demanded embodying something deeper than fear. She is oblivious until the evil takes hold, and that flip is terrifying because it is so deep.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—giving customers internationally can be part of this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original promo, which has seen over a viral response.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, extending the thrill to horror fans worldwide.


Don’t miss this soul-jarring voyage through terror. Confront *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to face these unholy truths about our species.


For featurettes, extra content, and news from behind the lens, follow @YACFilm across media channels and visit youngandcursed.com.





Horror’s decisive shift: 2025 across markets U.S. release slate integrates primeval-possession lore, independent shockers, together with Franchise Rumbles

Spanning grit-forward survival fare inspired by legendary theology all the way to canon extensions set beside keen independent perspectives, 2025 appears poised to be the genre’s most multifaceted paired with tactically planned year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. top-tier distributors lock in tentpoles with known properties, even as platform operators flood the fall with debut heat set against scriptural shivers. At the same time, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is propelled by the momentum from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Since Halloween is the prized date, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, however this time, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are disciplined, thus 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal Pictures fires the first shot with a headline swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, inside today’s landscape. Guided by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. targeting mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer fades, Warner’s slate sets loose the finale of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson is back, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retro dread, trauma driven plotting, with ghostly inner logic. This run ups the stakes, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The next entry deepens the tale, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It drops in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Offerings: Modest spend, serious shock

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a close quarters body horror study with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. 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. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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 a calculated bet. No puffed out backstory. No canon weight. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

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

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, guided by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror retakes ground
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Badges become bargaining chips
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

The big screen is a trust exercise
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: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The forthcoming 2026 spook release year: Sequels, standalone ideas, And A hectic Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek: The brand-new horror cycle builds right away with a January pile-up, from there unfolds through peak season, and deep into the holidays, marrying marquee clout, creative pitches, and data-minded alternatives. The major players are prioritizing efficient budgets, cinema-first plans, and influencer-ready assets that transform these releases into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This space has solidified as the bankable play in distribution calendars, a lane that can expand when it resonates and still mitigate the liability when it underperforms. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that lean-budget genre plays can dominate social chatter, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The upswing moved into 2025, where reawakened brands and elevated films highlighted there is capacity for a spectrum, from returning installments to original one-offs that carry overseas. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a run that looks unusually coordinated across players, with strategic blocks, a blend of brand names and new packages, and a reinvigorated focus on theater exclusivity that power the aftermarket on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Insiders argue the space now works like a plug-and-play option on the grid. Horror can debut on most weekends, create a clear pitch for trailers and shorts, and lead with moviegoers that line up on Thursday nights and hold through the follow-up frame if the feature pays off. Post a work stoppage lag, the 2026 layout exhibits assurance in that playbook. The slate kicks off with a loaded January run, then primes spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while saving space for a autumn stretch that pushes into spooky season and into early November. The arrangement also illustrates the greater integration of specialty distributors and digital platforms that can platform a title, create conversation, and widen at the inflection point.

A parallel macro theme is IP stewardship across interlocking continuities and classic IP. The players are not just rolling another next film. They are setting up lore continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title design that signals a new tone or a casting choice that links a fresh chapter to a original cycle. At the parallel to that, the directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are favoring physical effects work, on-set effects and site-specific worlds. That pairing affords the 2026 slate a smart balance of recognition and invention, which is how the films export.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount plants an early flag with two spotlight moves that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the core, presenting it as both a baton pass and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture signals a nostalgia-forward approach without recycling the last two entries’ sisters thread. Plan for a rollout centered on recognizable motifs, early character teases, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will foreground. As a summer contrast play, this one will build wide buzz through share-ready beats, with the horror this page spoof format permitting quick turns to whatever owns horror talk that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is clean, loss-driven, and logline-clear: a grieving man onboards an artificial companion that shifts into a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to iterate on uncanny live moments and short-form creative that mixes affection and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a name unveil to become an PR pop closer to the initial promo. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His entries are marketed as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-October frame offers Universal room to own 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has proven that a visceral, prosthetic-heavy strategy can feel deluxe on a disciplined budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror shock that pushes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio lines up two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, carrying a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is selling as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both devotees and fresh viewers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign creative around setting detail, and creature effects, elements that can increase large-format demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on immersive craft and period speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The specialty arm has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is strong.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on known playbooks. The studio’s horror films head to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a structure that maximizes both first-week urgency and trial spikes in the late-window. Prime Video balances licensed titles with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using seasonal hubs, seasonal hubs, and programmed rows to extend momentum on lifetime take. Netflix stays opportunistic about first-party entries and festival acquisitions, confirming horror entries tight to release and staging as events rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of targeted cinema placements and rapid platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a discrete basis. The platform has signaled readiness to secure select projects with recognized filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly activity when the genre conversation peaks.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 track 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 simple: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, elevated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas corridor to scale. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-first horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception allows. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using boutique theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their community.

Known brands versus new stories

By weight, 2026 tilts in favor of the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on cultural cachet. The concern, as ever, is diminishing returns. The go-to fix is to sell each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is leading with relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-flavored turn from a hot helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the package is recognizable enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years clarify the strategy. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that held distribution windows did not hamper a parallel release from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, art-forward horror punched above its weight in PLF. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they rotate perspective and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, enables marketing to interlace chapters through character and theme and to keep materials circulating without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The director conversations behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued tilt toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that leans on atmosphere and fear rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for textured sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft profiles and department features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for red-band excess, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and sparks shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature craft and set design, which match well with fan conventions and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel must-have. Look for trailers that emphasize hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is jammed. 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 quiet contrast amid big-brand pushes. 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 meaningful, but the menu of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth holds.

Q1 into Q2 seed summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

August into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder season window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that center concept over reveals.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s AI companion evolves into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 tough boss struggle to survive on a uninhabited island as the power dynamic tilts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to fear, built on Cronin’s hands-on craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that toys with the terror of a child’s tricky interpretations. Rating: TBD. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed and marquee-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A satirical comeback that pokes at contemporary horror memes and true-crime obsessions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further reopens, with a different family linked to returning horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-first horror over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBD. Production: moving forward. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 ancient menace. Rating: undetermined. 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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that slowed or recalendared in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and condensed timelines. 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on clippable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, freeing space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will trade weekends across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value 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 deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, acoustics, 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.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand gravity where needed, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the gasps sell the seats.