Primordial Dread Surfaces within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled horror feature, launching October 2025 across premium platforms

An hair-raising supernatural shockfest from author / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an long-buried entity when drifters become conduits in a devilish struggle. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing tale of resilience and age-old darkness that will reconstruct genre cinema this spooky time. Helmed by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and tone-heavy screenplay follows five strangers who snap to confined in a hidden lodge under the aggressive influence of Kyra, a tormented girl controlled by a time-worn holy text monster. Be warned to be gripped by a filmic outing that merges intense horror with arcane tradition, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a time-honored tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is inverted when the fiends no longer appear from elsewhere, but rather from within. This illustrates the malevolent element of the cast. The result is a intense identity crisis where the drama becomes a brutal contest between moral forces.


In a haunting wilderness, five youths find themselves isolated under the malevolent rule and grasp of a elusive spirit. As the ensemble becomes defenseless to evade her grasp, detached and tormented by presences unimaginable, they are cornered to endure their core terrors while the clock without pause strikes toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread escalates and associations disintegrate, demanding each participant to question their true nature and the idea of conscious will itself. The pressure grow with every tick, delivering a frightening tale that weaves together supernatural terror with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to awaken deep fear, an curse before modern man, operating within soul-level flaws, and navigating a being that erodes the self when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra required summoning something darker than pain. She is insensitive until the control shifts, and that transformation is terrifying because it is so raw.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for audience access beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—offering subscribers everywhere can watch this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its initial teaser, which has seen over massive response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, making the film to a worldwide audience.


Don’t miss this mind-warping exploration of dread. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to face these dark realities about the psyche.


For exclusive trailers, extra content, and news directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Instagram and Twitter and visit the movie’s homepage.





Modern horror’s watershed moment: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts blends myth-forward possession, Indie Shockers, together with brand-name tremors

Running from last-stand terror infused with scriptural legend to returning series set beside focused festival visions, 2025 looks like the most textured plus carefully orchestrated year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Major studios lock in tentpoles using marquee IP, while premium streamers load up the fall with new perspectives together with old-world menace. On the festival side, horror’s indie wing is fueled by the backdraft from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, yet in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are intentional, so 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium dread reemerges

The top end is active. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal camp leads off the quarter with a confident swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a sharp contemporary setting. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. timed for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Helmed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and 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. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. Pictures bows the concluding entry of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson returns, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: vintage toned fear, trauma driven plotting, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The stakes escalate here, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, builds out the animatronic fear crew, courting teens and the thirty something base. It arrives in December, cornering year end horror.

Streamer Exclusives: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a forensic chill anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

More contained by design is Together, a two hander body horror spiral anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is a near certain autumn drop.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable featuring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. That is a savvy move. No bloated canon. No sequel clutter. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

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

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Series Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts 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.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, 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. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Key Trends

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

The Road Ahead: 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. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The oncoming genre Year Ahead: brand plays, universe starters, together with A packed Calendar aimed at goosebumps

Dek: The new genre cycle loads at the outset with a January traffic jam, following that extends through summer corridors, and straight through the holidays, braiding marquee clout, fresh ideas, and strategic release strategy. The major players are focusing on smart costs, box-office-first windows, and shareable marketing that elevate these offerings into culture-wide discussion.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror filmmaking has become the bankable release in studio lineups, a vertical that can surge when it clicks and still cushion the drag when it stumbles. After the 2023 year reassured top brass that mid-range genre plays can dominate audience talk, the following year extended the rally with buzzy auteur projects and stealth successes. The head of steam rolled into the 2025 frame, where returns and awards-minded projects highlighted there is appetite for a spectrum, from sequel tracks to standalone ideas that play globally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a schedule that reads highly synchronized across the field, with defined corridors, a combination of marquee IP and first-time concepts, and a recommitted focus on box-office windows that drive downstream revenue on premium on-demand and home platforms.

Planners observe the category now serves as a fill-in ace on the grid. Horror can kick off on a wide range of weekends, supply a sharp concept for promo reels and social clips, and outperform with viewers that respond on early shows and maintain momentum through the next weekend if the movie connects. Emerging from a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 rhythm exhibits comfort in that equation. The year launches with a loaded January stretch, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while holding room for a fall cadence that stretches into Halloween and afterwards. The schedule also highlights the stronger partnership of specialized imprints and streamers that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and widen at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is series management across interlocking continuities and storied titles. The players are not just turning out another entry. They are working to present ongoing narrative with a specialness, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a re-angled tone or a cast configuration that threads a incoming chapter to a heyday. At the alongside this, the auteurs behind the eagerly awaited originals are doubling down on on-set craft, in-camera effects and place-driven backdrops. That pairing produces 2026 a lively combination of assurance and novelty, which is what works overseas.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount plants an early flag with two prominent pushes that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the lead, setting it up as both a lineage transfer and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach suggests a heritage-honoring treatment without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave anchored in heritage visuals, character spotlights, and a staggered trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will foreground. As a summer contrast play, this one will seek large awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever drives horror talk that spring.

Universal has three clear lanes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tight, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an synthetic partner that mutates into a murderous partner. The date puts it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s campaign likely to reprise viral uncanny stunts and bite-size content that melds intimacy and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a final title to become an attention spike closer to the first look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are presented as director events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second beat that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor opens a lane to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has shown that a tactile, hands-on effects aesthetic can feel top-tier on a tight budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror jolt that leans into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. his comment is here and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio launches two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, maintaining a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is describing as a new take 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 focus to serve both devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build promo materials around mythos, and monster aesthetics, elements that can lift premium booking interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror defined by immersive craft and period speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. The specialty arm has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

Digital platform strategies

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate land on copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ordering that fortifies both initial urgency and platform bumps in the downstream. Prime Video will mix acquired titles with worldwide buys and brief theater runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in archive usage, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and programmed rows to extend momentum on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix films and festival buys, dating horror entries with shorter lead times and coalescing around rollouts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a two-step of tailored theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to take on select projects with award winners or star-led packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 corridor with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clear: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, reimagined for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a traditional cinema play for the title, an positive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas corridor to go wider. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception supports. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, 2026 favors the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The question, as ever, is diminishing returns. The go-to fix is to sell each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is elevating core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and talent-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the cast-creatives package is assuring enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Recent-year comps contextualize the approach. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not obstruct a day-and-date experiment from thriving when the brand was potent. In 2024, precision craft horror punched above its weight in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reframe POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, builds a path for marketing to relate entries through relationships and themes and to keep assets alive without long breaks.

Behind-the-camera trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the year’s horror suggest a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that leans on mood and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft profiles and technical spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and drives shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta recalibration that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature and environment design, which fit with expo activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel must-have. Look for trailers that highlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that shine in top rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is full. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star Check This Out forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the mix of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late winter and spring prime the summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects 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 lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. 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 run their PLF course.

End of summer through fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited asset reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card use.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s artificial companion turns into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

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 run into a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: mood-led 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 hard-edged boss try to survive on a desolate island as the chain of command upends and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

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 modern reconception that returns the monster to chill, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting piece that channels the fear through a youth’s flickering personal vantage. Rating: pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A genre lampoon that needles of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fascinations. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 bursts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further widens again, with a unlucky family linked to ancient dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: undetermined. Production: in progress. 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 historical diction and primal menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down timelines. 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on social-ready stingers from test screenings, metered scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can command a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will jostle across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, 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 optimal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 dark-horse hunt 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 maximize those pockets. 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sound, 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, Ready To Roar

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is IP strength where it matters, original 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shudders sell the seats.