Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes primordial evil, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across major platforms

A haunting supernatural nightmare movie from screenwriter / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an mythic force when outsiders become subjects in a diabolical ritual. Premiering October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing portrayal of struggle and timeless dread that will reimagine scare flicks this Halloween season. Produced by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and atmospheric story follows five lost souls who find themselves caught in a hidden cottage under the sinister dominion of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a millennia-old ancient fiend. Get ready to be drawn in by a big screen presentation that unites visceral dread with timeless legends, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a iconic fixture in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is subverted when the forces no longer emerge externally, but rather inside them. This portrays the shadowy part of every character. The result is a edge-of-seat cognitive warzone where the conflict becomes a relentless fight between innocence and sin.


In a remote natural abyss, five youths find themselves stuck under the sinister grip and spiritual invasion of a obscure female figure. As the protagonists becomes incapacitated to oppose her curse, stranded and pursued by beings unimaginable, they are pushed to encounter their raw vulnerabilities while the time unceasingly edges forward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear escalates and partnerships splinter, pressuring each character to contemplate their character and the principle of volition itself. The pressure surge with every passing moment, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that harmonizes occult fear with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to dig into instinctual horror, an evil that existed before mankind, working through psychological breaks, and exposing a will that challenges autonomy when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra was centered on something beyond human emotion. She is in denial until the demon emerges, and that pivot is shocking because it is so close.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be released for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—ensuring streamers in all regions can survive this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first preview, which has garnered over strong viewer count.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, bringing the film to viewers around the world.


Experience this heart-stopping path of possession. Confront *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to survive these evil-rooted truths about free will.


For cast commentary, set experiences, and reveals straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across online outlets and visit the official website.





Current horror’s decisive shift: the year 2025 domestic schedule melds Mythic Possession, independent shockers, plus IP aftershocks

Moving from life-or-death fear drawn from old testament echoes and onward to series comebacks paired with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 appears poised to be the genre’s most multifaceted as well as strategic year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Top studios set cornerstones through proven series, in tandem streamers pack the fall with emerging auteurs paired with archetypal fear. In the indie lane, the artisan tier is catching the uplift of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the other windows are mapped with care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The top end is active. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s slate starts the year with a bold swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. targeting mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Guided by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

When summer tapers, Warner’s slate delivers the closing chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson returns to the helm, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: nostalgic menace, trauma as narrative engine, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The stakes escalate here, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, speaking to teens and older millennials. It posts in December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Plays: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a tight space body horror vignette with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga led by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. 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. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. That is a savvy move. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror ascends again
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

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.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The new chiller slate: installments, standalone ideas, together with A stacked Calendar Built For goosebumps

Dek: The fresh scare cycle stacks in short order with a January bottleneck, after that extends through summer, and running into the festive period, fusing legacy muscle, original angles, and tactical offsets. Major distributors and platforms are relying on cost discipline, theatrical leads, and shareable marketing that shape these films into all-audience topics.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This category has established itself as the most reliable lever in studio calendars, a space that can lift when it performs and still mitigate the drag when it fails to connect. After 2023 re-taught leaders that cost-conscious fright engines can command the national conversation, the following year kept energy high with buzzy auteur projects and slow-burn breakouts. The trend extended into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and critical darlings demonstrated there is a market for many shades, from ongoing IP entries to director-led originals that scale internationally. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a programming that is strikingly coherent across companies, with purposeful groupings, a blend of brand names and original hooks, and a recommitted attention on exclusive windows that increase tail monetization on premium video on demand and home platforms.

Marketers add the genre now serves as a versatile piece on the slate. The genre can arrive on many corridors, create a grabby hook for spots and vertical videos, and outperform with fans that line up on Thursday previews and continue through the week two if the release works. Following a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 setup demonstrates confidence in that equation. The year begins with a loaded January stretch, then primes spring and early summer for balance, while saving space for a fall run that carries into Halloween and into November. The program also highlights the continuing integration of indie arms and home platforms that can grow from platform, spark evangelism, and broaden at the strategic time.

An added macro current is series management across ongoing universes and long-running brands. Studio teams are not just rolling another installment. They are setting up brand continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a new tone or a ensemble decision that links a new entry to a initial period. At the alongside this, the creative leads behind the headline-grabbing originals are prioritizing hands-on technique, practical effects and vivid settings. That pairing yields the 2026 slate a healthy mix of home base and freshness, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

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

Paramount sets the tone early with two spotlight bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a relay and a heritage-centered relationship-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial horror approach suggests a fan-service aware mode without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Count on a promo wave rooted in legacy iconography, first images of characters, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reignites 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 as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a summer alternative, this one will generate general-audience talk through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format fitting quick adjustments to whatever drives pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three discrete have a peek at these guys plays. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tidy, somber, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man implements an machine companion that escalates into a harmful mate. The date sets it at the front of a busy month, with the marketing arm likely to renew strange in-person beats and short-cut promos that threads longing and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books 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 teaser payoff closer to the first trailer. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele projects are marketed as auteur events, with a hinting teaser and a later creative that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot affords Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use 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 heads, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has long shown that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered style can feel cinematic on a lean spend. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror hit that maximizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is describing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both franchise faithful and novices. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around narrative world, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify PLF interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by careful craft and archaic language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus’s team has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases feed copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that amplifies both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the back half. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with world buys and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival grabs, confirming horror entries tight to release and coalescing around arrivals with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a tiered of targeted cinema placements and prompt platform moves that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a discrete basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to buy select projects with name filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 runway with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is no-nonsense: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, reimagined for modern mix and image. 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 telegraphed a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late-season weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then pressing the December frame to expand. That positioning has been successful for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. 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 reasonable expectation is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception supports. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using precision theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their membership.

Legacy titles versus originals

By share, the 2026 slate skews toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on marquee value. The potential drawback, as ever, is audience fatigue. The preferred tactic is to position each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is leading with relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. 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 stranded survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the configuration is anchored enough to build pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Rolling three-year comps frame the approach. In 2023, a theater-first model that honored streaming windows did not obstruct a hybrid test from paying off when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror exceeded expectations in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot in tandem, builds a path for marketing to connect the chapters through protagonists and motifs and to maintain a flow of assets without long gaps.

Behind-the-camera trends

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror suggest a continued move toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that highlights grain and menace rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for textured sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft journalism and department features before rolling out a teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and creates shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta inflection that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster aesthetics and world-building, which favor convention floor stunts and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel primary. Look for trailers that spotlight disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that sing on PLF.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is jammed. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid macro-brand pushes. The month buttons 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 mix of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth endures.

Q1 into Q2 build the summer base. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps 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 light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can succeed 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 shuffled through big rooms.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a early fall window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a mystery-first teaser plan and limited plot reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s synthetic partner turns into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical 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 cut-off island as the power balance shifts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to dread, founded on Cronin’s physical craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting narrative that pipes the unease through a minor’s shifting POV. Rating: rating pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-grade and marquee-led eerie 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 lampoons today’s horror trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBD. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 detonates, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further reopens, with a young family entangled with returning horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving forward. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 language and primal menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces structure this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or recalendared in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on meme-ready beats from test screenings, precision scare clips movies paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

The slot calculus is real. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will cluster across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, 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 sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound, and cinematography 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 Promising 2026

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, hold the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.