Primordial Evil Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling feature, premiering Oct 2025 on major platforms

An bone-chilling supernatural terror film from narrative craftsman / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an primeval curse when newcomers become tokens in a cursed ritual. Available this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing portrayal of endurance and forgotten curse that will revamp horror this October. Created by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and cinematic suspense flick follows five individuals who snap to isolated in a remote shack under the oppressive dominion of Kyra, a cursed figure inhabited by a 2,000-year-old sacred-era entity. Get ready to be gripped by a narrative venture that blends deep-seated panic with spiritual backstory, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a iconic fixture in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is subverted when the dark entities no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather within themselves. This echoes the deepest element of all involved. The result is a bone-chilling psychological battle where the conflict becomes a constant struggle between right and wrong.


In a remote no-man's-land, five campers find themselves marooned under the fiendish aura and haunting of a mysterious being. As the companions becomes unresisting to withstand her will, marooned and chased by forces unnamable, they are thrust to face their greatest panics while the countdown without pity ticks onward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension intensifies and partnerships erode, pushing each cast member to examine their character and the integrity of free will itself. The cost amplify with every fleeting time, delivering a fear-soaked story that blends spiritual fright with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dive into primitive panic, an threat born of forgotten ages, manifesting in emotional vulnerability, and challenging a power that strips down our being when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra meant channeling something past sanity. She is insensitive until the curse activates, and that turn is shocking because it is so intimate.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that subscribers globally can face this demonic journey.


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


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, taking the terror to international horror buffs.


Witness this mind-warping spiral into evil. Face *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to dive into these unholy truths about the soul.


For cast commentary, director cuts, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit youngandcursed.com.





Modern horror’s sea change: 2025 for genre fans U.S. release slate integrates ancient-possession motifs, art-house nightmares, set against series shake-ups

Running from pressure-cooker survival tales infused with primordial scripture and onward to installment follow-ups and keen independent perspectives, 2025 is coalescing into the most dimensioned in tandem with tactically planned year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio powerhouses set cornerstones via recognizable brands, simultaneously SVOD players prime the fall with first-wave breakthroughs as well as scriptural shivers. In parallel, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the kinetic energy from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, however this time, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, hence 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium dread reemerges

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal camp sets the tone with a big gambit: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Directed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer eases, Warner Bros. Pictures rolls out the capstone from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson resumes command, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: nostalgic menace, trauma as theme, along with eerie supernatural rules. The stakes escalate here, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The new chapter enriches the lore, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, courting teens and the thirty something base. It drops in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Firsts: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a sealed box body horror arc pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within 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. It is a smart play. No overstuffed canon. No legacy baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. 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 its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

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. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, with Francis Lawrence directing, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

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

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The new fright calendar year ahead: brand plays, original films, as well as A jammed Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek: The fresh genre calendar packs immediately with a January crush, before it runs through summer, and straight through the holiday stretch, weaving franchise firepower, novel approaches, and tactical calendar placement. Studios and platforms are embracing tight budgets, theatrical leads, and social-fueled campaigns that turn these films into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This space has become the surest play in studio slates, a genre that can lift when it lands and still buffer the floor when it falls short. After the 2023 year demonstrated to buyers that cost-conscious scare machines can command cultural conversation, 2024 carried the beat with signature-voice projects and sleeper breakouts. The carry translated to the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and elevated films underscored there is a lane for a spectrum, from series extensions to original features that translate worldwide. The end result for the 2026 slate is a grid that shows rare alignment across the field, with clear date clusters, a spread of established brands and new packages, and a sharpened strategy on release windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium on-demand and subscription services.

Insiders argue the space now performs as a plug-and-play option on the slate. Horror can premiere on nearly any frame, deliver a grabby hook for marketing and UGC-friendly snippets, and over-index with moviegoers that line up on first-look nights and sustain through the second frame if the title fires. Following a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 mapping telegraphs trust in that playbook. The slate kicks off with a stacked January block, then exploits spring through early summer for balance, while saving space for a fall run that flows toward holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The map also features the greater integration of indie distributors and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and scale up at the optimal moment.

A second macro trend is brand strategy across interlocking continuities and classic IP. The studios are not just rolling another entry. They are working to present ongoing narrative with a occasion, whether that is a graphic identity that flags a refreshed voice or a casting choice that anchors a new entry to a original cycle. At the parallel to that, the directors behind the high-profile originals are leaning into material texture, on-set effects and site-specific worlds. That convergence delivers 2026 a confident blend of trust and newness, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount plants an early flag with two centerpiece moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the core, presenting it as both a baton pass and a classic-mode character-centered film. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the narrative stance announces a nostalgia-forward mode without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Plan for a rollout built on signature symbols, initial cast looks, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will pursue four-quadrant chatter through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick pivots to whatever leads the social talk that spring.

Universal has three specific bets. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tight, loss-driven, and premise-first: a grieving man purchases an virtual partner that escalates into a fatal companion. The date sets it at the front of a stacked January, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on creepy live activations and bite-size content that interweaves intimacy and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the initial promo. 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 books October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. The filmmaker’s films are treated as auteur events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second trailer wave that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The spooky-season slot opens a lane to lead 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has shown that a gnarly, physical-effects centered aesthetic can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Expect a gore-forward summer horror hit that leans hard into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio lines up two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, extending a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is presenting as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build promo materials around lore, and creature work, elements that can lift deluxe auditorium demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in textural authenticity and historical speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. The imprint has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is supportive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform windowing in 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre entries move to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a cadence that expands both initial urgency and trial spikes in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed films with global originals and brief theater runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in archive usage, using seasonal hubs, October hubs, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays nimble about internal projects and festival grabs, securing horror entries on shorter runways and staging as events debuts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a two-step of selective theatrical runs and accelerated platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown a willingness to acquire select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 runway 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 pitch is no-nonsense: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, recalibrated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a theatrical-first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas corridor to expand. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-driven genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using limited theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By number, 2026 favors the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is staleness. The preferred tactic is to package each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is centering character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-inflected take from a fresh helmer. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on known click site IP, the deal build is comforting enough to build pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps contextualize the logic. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept streaming intact did not prevent a day-date move from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, precision craft horror exceeded expectations in premium large format. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and grow scope. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

Behind-the-camera trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued lean toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds atmosphere and fear rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in trade spotlights and artisan spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature design and production design, which lend themselves to con floor moments and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that shine in top rooms.

The schedule at a glance

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 brooding contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the variety of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Q1 into Q2 prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited pre-release reveals that center concept over reveals.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and card redemption.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s machine mate evolves into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 abrasive boss scramble to survive on a remote island as the hierarchy swivels and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to dread, founded on Cronin’s material craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. 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 home-set haunting story that routes the horror through a youth’s shifting POV. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: locked. Positioning: major-studio and celebrity-led spirit-world suspense.

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 comic send-up that riffs on in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: TBA. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 international twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further widens again, with a young family entangled with residual nightmares. Rating: not yet rated. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on true survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in progress. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 raw menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three operational forces drive this lineup. First, production that slowed or migrated in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical 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 premieres. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on social-ready stingers from test screenings, curated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

There is also the slotting calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will jostle across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, 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 keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sound field, and visuals 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand equity where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.