Primordial Horror awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding chiller, launching October 2025 on top streamers

One bone-chilling supernatural scare-fest from cinematographer / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an age-old nightmare when drifters become tools in a cursed trial. Available on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing portrayal of resistance and primeval wickedness that will reshape scare flicks this season. Produced by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and tone-heavy cinema piece follows five figures who awaken stranded in a unreachable lodge under the malignant command of Kyra, a cursed figure haunted by a two-thousand-year-old scriptural evil. Arm yourself to be absorbed by a filmic display that unites instinctive fear with biblical origins, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a iconic theme in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is radically shifted when the spirits no longer appear outside the characters, but rather inside them. This illustrates the malevolent element of these individuals. The result is a bone-chilling moral showdown where the events becomes a merciless conflict between good and evil.


In a unforgiving no-man's-land, five teens find themselves isolated under the possessive grip and spiritual invasion of a unidentified being. As the survivors becomes unable to deny her influence, isolated and tormented by beings beyond reason, they are cornered to wrestle with their worst nightmares while the doomsday meter unceasingly runs out toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety builds and associations shatter, requiring each protagonist to question their self and the philosophy of free will itself. The consequences mount with every minute, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that intertwines demonic fright with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to uncover raw dread, an force from ancient eras, emerging via emotional vulnerability, and exposing a evil that questions who we are when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant channeling something unfamiliar to reason. She is innocent until the spirit seizes her, and that evolution is harrowing because it is so personal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for public screening beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing customers worldwide can dive into this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original clip, which has racked up over 100K plays.


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


Experience this unforgettable journey into fear. Watch *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to face these spiritual awakenings about the psyche.


For featurettes, extra content, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YACMovie across your favorite networks and visit the official website.





U.S. horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 in focus U.S. rollouts Mixes old-world possession, independent shockers, plus series shake-ups

Beginning with fight-to-live nightmare stories rooted in mythic scripture and including canon extensions paired with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is tracking to be horror’s most layered in tandem with blueprinted year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Major studios bookend the months with franchise anchors, simultaneously streamers crowd the fall with new perspectives in concert with mythic dread. At the same time, the art-house flank is drafting behind the kinetic energy from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, distinctly in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are exacting, as a result 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Elevated fear reclaims ground

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s slate begins the calendar with a bold swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Directed by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. 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 delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Eli Craig directs starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

When summer fades, the WB camp releases the last chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the tone that worked before is intact: retro dread, trauma explicitly handled, plus otherworld rules that chill. The bar is raised this go, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The next entry deepens the tale, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, speaking to teens and older millennials. It opens in December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a two hander body horror spiral led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story led by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

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, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a clever angle. No bloated canon. No continuity burden. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Lines: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

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. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If packaged well, it could track like 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 to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror retakes ground
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn density and winter pivot

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The upcoming terror calendar year ahead: next chapters, original films, paired with A hectic Calendar designed for chills

Dek The upcoming scare slate packs immediately with a January crush, then runs through midyear, and pushing into the late-year period, combining marquee clout, new concepts, and strategic counterplay. The big buyers and platforms are doubling down on right-sized spends, big-screen-first runs, and influencer-ready assets that frame horror entries into national conversation.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror has grown into the sturdy counterweight in studio calendars, a pillar that can surge when it clicks and still mitigate the exposure when it underperforms. After 2023 reminded buyers that lean-budget entries can galvanize the discourse, the following year continued the surge with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The carry translated to the 2025 frame, where re-entries and premium-leaning entries showed there is an opening for many shades, from sequel tracks to fresh IP that export nicely. The aggregate for 2026 is a run that looks unusually coordinated across the field, with planned clusters, a spread of familiar brands and new packages, and a renewed focus on theater exclusivity that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and streaming.

Insiders argue the space now behaves like a versatile piece on the slate. Horror can launch on most weekends, create a tight logline for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with fans that show up on opening previews and return through the next pass if the offering lands. Emerging from a production delay era, the 2026 configuration reflects assurance in that logic. The year rolls out with a stacked January band, then taps spring and early summer for balance, while leaving room for a fall cadence that flows toward the Halloween corridor and beyond. The schedule also reflects the deeper integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can grow from platform, generate chatter, and move wide at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is IP cultivation across linked properties and long-running brands. The companies are not just making another follow-up. They are setting up threaded continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that signals a new vibe or a lead change that anchors a new entry to a heyday. At the parallel to that, the visionaries behind the most buzzed-about originals are embracing practical craft, special makeup and grounded locations. That combination yields the 2026 slate a solid mix of trust and discovery, which is why the genre exports well.

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

Paramount establishes early momentum with two big-ticket bets that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the core, framing it as both a passing of the torch and a rootsy character piece. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the story approach telegraphs a legacy-leaning framework without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Watch for a push centered on franchise iconography, early character teases, and a tiered teaser plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will stress. As a summer alternative, this one will seek wide buzz through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick turns to whatever tops the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three separate plays. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, have a peek here a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is clean, melancholic, and logline-clear: a grieving man installs an artificial companion that turns into a harmful mate. The date places it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and brief clips that mixes intimacy and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a title drop to become an PR pop closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s pictures are branded as creative events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-October frame affords Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a in-your-face, hands-on effects execution can feel elevated on a middle budget. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that leans hard into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio books two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is presenting as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both core fans and general audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build promo materials around world-building, and monster design, elements that can drive premium format interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by meticulous craft and 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 scale widely if early reception is warm.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. The Universal horror run shift to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a structure that enhances both initial urgency and subscriber lifts in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines licensed titles with global acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data supports it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library curation, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and curated strips to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix remains opportunistic about own-slate titles and festival additions, scheduling horror entries on shorter runways and eventizing drops with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a paired of precision releases and prompt platform moves that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has proven amenable to take on select projects with established auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is tight: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, elevated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a theatrical rollout for the title, an good sign for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then leveraging the year-end corridor to open out. That positioning has helped for filmmaker-first horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception supports. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchises versus originals

By tilt, 2026 favors the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on legacy awareness. The trade-off, as ever, is diminishing returns. The pragmatic answer is to present each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a Francophone tone from a fresh helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and visionary-led titles keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the cast-creatives package is assuring enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the plan. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that respected streaming windows did not obstruct a day-and-date experiment from winning when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror surged in premium large format. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reframe POV and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward 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, provides the means for marketing to relate entries through character and theme and to leave creative active without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind these films telegraph a continued emphasis on material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that foregrounds texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and department features before rolling out a tone piece that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta pivot that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature and environment design, which play well in convention floor stunts and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in big rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is packed. 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 moody palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the tone spread creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now can handle 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a transitional slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a slow-reveal plan and limited pre-release reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and holiday gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s synthetic partner becomes something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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

Return to Silent 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 be swallowed by a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 difficult boss struggle to survive on a rugged island as the pecking order turns and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 renewed take that returns the monster to fear, anchored by Cronin’s physical craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting tale that leverages the fright of a child’s uncertain read. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A genre lampoon that teases today’s horror trends and true-crime manias. Rating: not yet rated. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 international twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a unlucky family lashed to past horrors. Rating: pending. 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: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

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

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and elemental fear. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three hands-on forces drive this lineup. First, production that downshifted or migrated in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and accelerated 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine turnkey scare beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can control a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, 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 seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to 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 deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundcraft, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is IP strength where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.