Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on major streaming services

An bone-chilling ghostly shockfest from author / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an mythic terror when outsiders become tools in a devilish ceremony. Premiering October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching portrayal of resistance and primeval wickedness that will reshape the horror genre this scare season. Guided by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and gothic motion picture follows five young adults who wake up caught in a isolated structure under the unfriendly command of Kyra, a female lead inhabited by a time-worn Old Testament spirit. Brace yourself to be absorbed by a narrative event that integrates soul-chilling terror with ancient myths, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a mainstay narrative in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is inverted when the demons no longer descend externally, but rather within themselves. This embodies the darkest element of all involved. The result is a riveting cognitive warzone where the drama becomes a relentless fight between good and evil.


In a desolate forest, five youths find themselves isolated under the evil grip and domination of a elusive being. As the victims becomes unable to withstand her manipulation, detached and attacked by spirits unimaginable, they are compelled to deal with their emotional phantoms while the countdown brutally runs out toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread surges and teams disintegrate, pressuring each character to scrutinize their existence and the philosophy of volition itself. The pressure rise with every beat, delivering a paranormal ride that fuses ghostly evil with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to draw upon ancestral fear, an entity beyond recorded history, channeling itself through our weaknesses, and exposing a presence that tests the soul when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant channeling something unfamiliar to reason. She is insensitive until the demon emerges, and that transformation is eerie because it is so raw.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be released for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering fans anywhere can enjoy this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first trailer, which has been viewed over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, delivering the story to lovers of terror across nations.


Don’t miss this life-altering journey into fear. Experience *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to face these unholy truths about existence.


For bonus footage, director cuts, and updates from behind the lens, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Facebook and TikTok and visit our film’s homepage.





Current horror’s Turning Point: 2025 in focus American release plan blends legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, plus IP aftershocks

Spanning fight-to-live nightmare stories infused with old testament echoes and onward to IP renewals together with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is shaping up as horror’s most layered combined with calculated campaign year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio powerhouses stabilize the year with known properties, concurrently subscription platforms load up the fall with debut heat as well as old-world menace. At the same time, independent banners is carried on the carry of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, yet in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are methodical, therefore 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige fear returns

The majors are assertive. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s distribution arm starts the year with a risk-forward move: a refreshed Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a sharp contemporary setting. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. landing in mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Helmed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer tapers, the Warner Bros. banner rolls out the capstone from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The bar is raised this go, 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 next entry deepens the tale, thickens the animatronic pantheon, bridging teens and legacy players. It books December, locking down the winter tail.

SVOD Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a two hander body horror spiral led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written 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. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a calculated bet. No bloated mythology. No series drag. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

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

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Franchise Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The oncoming spook season: entries, standalone ideas, plus A brimming Calendar optimized for shocks

Dek: The upcoming scare calendar packs up front with a January glut, before it flows through the warm months, and well into the holidays, balancing brand heft, creative pitches, and data-minded counterprogramming. The major players are relying on mid-range economics, theatrical-first rollouts, and social-driven marketing that turn genre titles into four-quadrant talking points.

How the genre looks for 2026

The field has grown into the bankable tool in release plans, a genre that can surge when it catches and still buffer the exposure when it misses. After 2023 reminded executives that lean-budget entries can command audience talk, 2024 kept energy high with visionary-driven titles and surprise hits. The carry extended into 2025, where returns and elevated films highlighted there is a market for a spectrum, from sequel tracks to standalone ideas that resonate abroad. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a calendar that looks unusually coordinated across the market, with strategic blocks, a pairing of household franchises and new pitches, and a renewed emphasis on exhibition windows that feed downstream value on premium rental and streaming.

Distribution heads claim the genre now acts as a versatile piece on the release plan. The genre can roll out on nearly any frame, create a clean hook for trailers and platform-native cuts, and outpace with viewers that turn out on early shows and hold through the second frame if the movie pays off. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 plan signals trust in that dynamic. The calendar launches with a thick January corridor, then targets spring into early summer for counterweight, while reserving space for a October build that extends to the Halloween frame and past Halloween. The map also underscores the continuing integration of indie arms and subscription services that can build gradually, stoke social talk, and grow at the strategic time.

A reinforcing pattern is brand strategy across shared IP webs and storied titles. Major shops are not just turning out another return. They are moving to present ongoing narrative with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title design that conveys a new tone or a casting move that threads a new installment to a foundational era. At the simultaneously, the visionaries behind the most watched originals are doubling down on real-world builds, on-set effects and vivid settings. That blend offers 2026 a solid mix of home base and unexpected turns, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount defines the early cadence with two big-ticket releases that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, steering it as both a baton pass and a rootsy character-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the narrative stance conveys a throwback-friendly approach without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected rooted in franchise iconography, first-look character reveals, and a tiered teaser plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will feature. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue four-quadrant chatter through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format fitting quick adjustments to whatever defines the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three discrete releases. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, somber, and concept-forward: a grieving man activates an intelligent companion that becomes a deadly partner. The date lines it up at the front of a crowded corridor, with marketing at Universal likely to reprise eerie street stunts and micro spots that melds intimacy and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a proper title to become an PR pop closer to the initial tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. The filmmaker’s films are treated as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser with minimal detail and a next wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date offers Universal room to maximize 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, teams 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 long shown that a visceral, physical-effects centered execution can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Look for a blood-and-grime summer horror jolt that emphasizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is framing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both loyalists and newcomers. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature design, elements that can increase deluxe auditorium demand and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by careful craft and historical speech, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is positive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on well-known grooves. The Universal horror run transition to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that elevates both FOMO and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video continues to mix licensed titles with world buys and select theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using curated hubs, spooky hubs, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on aggregate take. Netflix keeps options open about original films and festival grabs, securing horror entries near launch and elevating as drops go-lives with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a tiered of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that translates talk to trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to take on select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is curating a 2026 track with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is tight: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, retooled for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a theatrical rollout for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late-season weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas corridor to go wider. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception justifies. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using limited runs to jump-start evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on fan equity. The question, as ever, is brand wear. The practical approach is to present each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is spotlighting character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival-thriller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the team and cast is recognizable enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years outline the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that honored streaming windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from performing when the brand was robust. In 2024, auteur craft horror punched above its weight in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel new when they shift POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, allows marketing to cross-link entries through personae and themes and to keep materials circulating without pause points.

Production craft signals

The director conversations behind these films point to a continued turn toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that emphasizes aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta inflection that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster realization and design, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel compelling. Look for trailers that highlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in premium houses.

Release calendar overview

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 big-brand pushes. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the variety of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth sustains.

Winter into spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads 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 red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited disclosures that put concept first.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s digital partner becomes something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. click site Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss struggle to survive on a rugged island as the power balance shifts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: 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 renewed vision that returns the monster to terror, rooted in Cronin’s on-set craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting setup that routes the horror through a minor’s uneven POV. Rating: forthcoming. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody return that teases contemporary horror memes and true crime fixations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 spreads, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new family lashed to returning horrors. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on classic survival-horror tone over action pyrotechnics. Rating: pending. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: closely held. Rating: to be announced. Production: active. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and primal menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or shuffled in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming releases. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage clippable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

The slot calculus is real. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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-hit hunt 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Expect a healthy 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 cadence and diversity. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit 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 austere, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to stage 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 justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, soundscape, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand power where it counts, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.