Primeval Evil Emerges within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding thriller, landing October 2025 across top streaming platforms

This chilling otherworldly suspense film from writer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an timeless force when foreigners become subjects in a demonic conflict. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing episode of endurance and age-old darkness that will revolutionize fear-driven cinema this scare season. Crafted by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and gothic suspense flick follows five unacquainted souls who find themselves confined in a unreachable wooden structure under the malevolent sway of Kyra, a cursed figure overtaken by a time-worn biblical demon. Steel yourself to be shaken by a screen-based adventure that weaves together gut-punch terror with arcane tradition, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a historical tradition in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is reimagined when the spirits no longer develop outside their bodies, but rather inside their minds. This suggests the most hidden facet of all involved. The result is a enthralling emotional conflict where the story becomes a perpetual battle between purity and corruption.


In a remote landscape, five teens find themselves isolated under the dark force and haunting of a elusive entity. As the group becomes incapable to combat her dominion, marooned and attacked by forces beyond reason, they are forced to encounter their emotional phantoms while the moments brutally draws closer toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread deepens and teams erode, demanding each protagonist to rethink their core and the principle of volition itself. The tension climb with every heartbeat, delivering a scare-fueled ride that merges unearthly horror with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to draw upon instinctual horror, an evil born of forgotten ages, influencing emotional vulnerability, and highlighting a presence that peels away humanity when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra involved tapping into something outside normal anguish. She is unaware until the possession kicks in, and that metamorphosis is soul-crushing because it is so internal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be released for home viewing beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing households internationally can enjoy this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its release of trailer #1, which has earned over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, exporting the fear to fans of fear everywhere.


Make sure to see this life-altering spiral into evil. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to experience these chilling revelations about human nature.


For film updates, extra content, and updates from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit our horror hub.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: the year 2025 U.S. lineup blends biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, alongside brand-name tremors

From survival horror saturated with scriptural legend and including IP renewals together with focused festival visions, 2025 appears poised to be the most variegated and carefully orchestrated year since the mid-2010s.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. top-tier distributors lock in tentpoles with established lines, in tandem OTT services saturate the fall with new perspectives together with primordial unease. At the same time, horror’s indie wing is fueled by the afterglow of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, yet in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are calculated, hence 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium genre swings back

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s schedule sets the tone with a risk-forward move: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, in a clear present-tense world. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. timed for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Directed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer tapers, Warner’s pipeline releases the last chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Despite a known recipe, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson resumes command, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: old school creep, trauma foregrounded, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time the stakes climb, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, thickens the animatronic pantheon, reaching teens and game grownups. It arrives in December, pinning the winter close.

Platform Plays: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the quieter side is Together, a room scale body horror descent led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is virtually assured for fall.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story with Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No heavy handed lore. No franchise baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are more runway than museum.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. 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. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony 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 debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Emerging Currents

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror resurges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Big screen is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The new fright release year: continuations, new stories, in tandem with A jammed Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek: The current genre slate crams up front with a January glut, after that spreads through the warm months, and well into the December corridor, mixing brand heft, new concepts, and calculated alternatives. Studio marketers and platforms are doubling down on tight budgets, box-office-first windows, and shareable marketing that transform these offerings into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the sturdy counterweight in release strategies, a vertical that can lift when it clicks and still cushion the floor when it falls short. After the 2023 year reassured top brass that cost-conscious genre plays can dominate mainstream conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The energy rolled into 2025, where revivals and premium-leaning entries signaled there is an opening for varied styles, from series extensions to original one-offs that perform internationally. The net effect for 2026 is a grid that looks unusually coordinated across the industry, with strategic blocks, a spread of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a recommitted eye on exhibition windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium home window and home streaming.

Insiders argue the space now serves as a wildcard on the release plan. The genre can arrive on numerous frames, provide a simple premise for spots and short-form placements, and over-index with demo groups that lean in on opening previews and return through the second weekend if the entry connects. Coming out of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 configuration signals comfort in that model. The calendar begins with a busy January lineup, then targets spring into early summer for alternate plays, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that flows toward the Halloween frame and into the next week. The layout also reflects the greater integration of specialized imprints and platforms that can stage a platform run, stoke social talk, and grow at the right moment.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across linked properties and established properties. The players are not just producing another installment. They are working to present lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that flags a reframed mood or a lead change that connects a latest entry to a heyday. At the in tandem, the directors behind the most anticipated originals are championing hands-on technique, practical gags and place-driven backdrops. That interplay delivers the 2026 slate a healthy mix of recognition and invention, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile bets that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture signals a nostalgia-forward campaign without going over the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push leaning on classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a rollout cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick redirects to whatever dominates the conversation that spring.

Universal has three differentiated strategies. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is straightforward, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that grows into a dangerous lover. The date slots it at the front of a packed window, with the Universal machine likely to bring back odd public stunts and micro spots that mixes companionship and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a name unveil to become an teaser payoff closer to the debut look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele titles are framed as marquee events, with a opaque teaser and a later creative that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame affords Universal to fill 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a raw, physical-effects centered method can feel big on a controlled budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror shot that leans hard into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, carrying a steady supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is marketing as a clean-slate approach 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 explicit mandate to serve both franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot lets Sony to build marketing units around world-building, and creature effects, elements that can fuel premium screens and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in rigorous craft and linguistic texture, this time set against lycan legends. The label has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s genre entries land on copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that boosts both initial urgency and trial spikes in the after-window. Prime Video stitches together third-party pickups with international acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in archive usage, using seasonal hubs, Halloween hubs, and handpicked rows to sustain interest on lifetime take. Netflix remains opportunistic about own-slate titles and festival additions, securing horror entries on shorter runways and turning into events rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a dual-phase of targeted theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that drives paid trials from buzz. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to secure select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 slate 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 angle is clean: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, reimagined for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a traditional cinema play for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the year-end corridor to expand. That positioning has helped for craft-driven horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception drives. Be ready for 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 as a pair, using small theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By number, the 2026 slate leans toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on fan equity. The risk, as ever, is brand erosion. The workable fix is to frame each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is centering character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a emerging director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the deal build is recognizable enough to spark pre-sales and early previews.

Recent-year comps outline the logic. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that held distribution windows did not hamper a day-date move from hitting when the brand was sticky. In 2024, art-forward horror popped in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they rotate perspective and widen scale. 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 shot back-to-back, creates space for marketing to thread films through cast and motif and to leave creative active without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued lean toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that foregrounds grain and menace rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft journalism and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that withholds plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and drives shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-aware reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature craft and set design, which play well in fan-con activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel definitive. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in premium houses.

The schedule at a glance

January is loaded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the range of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late Q1 and spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now backs 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 spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Shoulder season into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited teasers that prioritize concept over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card spend.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner evolves into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 unyielding boss fight to survive on a remote island as the power dynamic flips and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to fright, shaped by Cronin’s physical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting chiller that plays with the panic of a child’s wobbly perceptions. Rating: TBD. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-grade and star-led occult chiller.

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 parody reboot that teases contemporary horror memes and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further widens again, with a different family bound to old terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to rebuild news the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-driven horror over action-forward bombast. 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: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. Production: ongoing. 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 antique diction and elemental menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the moment is 2026

Three grounded forces drive this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or re-slotted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly 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 placements. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine bite-size scare clips from test screenings, select scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

The slot calculus is real. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will coexist across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, 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 sleeper chase 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is IP strength where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, 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, shape lean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.