Age-old Evil awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, landing Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

An chilling supernatural nightmare movie from author / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an timeless nightmare when strangers become proxies in a dark ritual. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing episode of survival and timeless dread that will alter terror storytelling this spooky time. Realized by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and claustrophobic fearfest follows five people who find themselves imprisoned in a secluded hideaway under the malevolent control of Kyra, a female lead haunted by a 2,000-year-old sacrosanct terror. Arm yourself to be immersed by a visual outing that melds primitive horror with legendary tales, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a time-honored narrative in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is redefined when the dark entities no longer emerge from external sources, but rather inside them. This depicts the grimmest shade of these individuals. The result is a emotionally raw inner struggle where the events becomes a relentless clash between light and darkness.


In a bleak wilderness, five characters find themselves confined under the fiendish rule and spiritual invasion of a uncanny entity. As the ensemble becomes paralyzed to deny her dominion, cut off and pursued by unknowns unimaginable, they are made to endure their darkest emotions while the moments without pity ticks onward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear rises and partnerships disintegrate, pushing each soul to challenge their values and the idea of liberty itself. The stakes amplify with every instant, delivering a fear-soaked story that weaves together ghostly evil with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to uncover basic terror, an threat that existed before mankind, manifesting in human fragility, and testing a darkness that dismantles free will when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra demanded embodying something more primal than sorrow. She is uninformed until the curse activates, and that flip is terrifying because it is so personal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—offering horror lovers anywhere can witness this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first preview, which has garnered over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, giving access to the movie to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this mind-warping descent into darkness. Enter *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to explore these ghostly lessons about the mind.


For sneak peeks, making-of footage, and news directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your favorite networks and visit youngandcursed.com.





Today’s horror inflection point: calendar year 2025 U.S. calendar Mixes Mythic Possession, underground frights, alongside franchise surges

Beginning with grit-forward survival fare steeped in mythic scripture and onward to returning series as well as pointed art-house angles, 2025 is tracking to be horror’s most layered along with precision-timed year of the last decade.

Call it full, but it is also focused. major banners set cornerstones with known properties, in tandem digital services crowd the fall with first-wave breakthroughs and scriptural shivers. In parallel, festival-forward creators is fueled by the afterglow of 2024’s record festival wave. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, yet in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are precise, therefore 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige fear returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal banner leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a refashioned Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. Guided by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile 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 reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Led by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer wanes, the WB camp launches the swan song from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson returns, and the memorable motifs return: throwback unease, trauma as text, and eerie supernatural logic. The bar is raised this go, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, speaking to teens and older millennials. It hits in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Firsts: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror duet starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is destined for a fall landing.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this piece touches 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.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No overstuffed canon. No franchise baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Long Running Lines: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. 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, led by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trends Worth Watching

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror ascends again
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. 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. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The approaching chiller year to come: installments, non-franchise titles, together with A packed Calendar Built For screams

Dek The arriving terror calendar crams up front with a January glut, before it runs through midyear, and carrying into the December corridor, braiding franchise firepower, creative pitches, and shrewd counterprogramming. Studios with streamers are doubling down on responsible budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-driven marketing that position these offerings into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror marketplace has proven to be the bankable option in studio calendars, a lane that can expand when it hits and still limit the liability when it misses. After the 2023 year demonstrated to studio brass that disciplined-budget chillers can lead the zeitgeist, the following year sustained momentum with buzzy auteur projects and unexpected risers. The tailwind extended into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is an opening for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a programming that seems notably aligned across the market, with clear date clusters, a harmony of legacy names and untested plays, and a re-energized stance on big-screen windows that power the aftermarket on PVOD and streaming.

Insiders argue the genre now functions as a fill-in ace on the calendar. Horror can launch on most weekends, offer a grabby hook for ad units and vertical videos, and exceed norms with viewers that turn out on preview nights and stay strong through the week two if the movie works. Following a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 layout signals conviction in that playbook. The slate launches with a busy January stretch, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a fall corridor that extends to the fright window and past Halloween. The program also features the continuing integration of specialized labels and platforms that can develop over weeks, generate chatter, and widen at the inflection point.

A parallel macro theme is legacy care across connected story worlds and long-running brands. Major shops are not just producing another follow-up. They are working to present connection with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that announces a recalibrated tone or a casting move that binds a upcoming film to a original cycle. At the simultaneously, the auteurs behind the most anticipated originals are favoring hands-on technique, practical effects and vivid settings. That mix provides 2026 a vital pairing of familiarity and shock, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount establishes early momentum with two prominent plays that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in get redirected here the top job and Neve Campbell back at the center, framing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a origin-leaning character-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the narrative stance suggests a nostalgia-forward framework without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run anchored in signature symbols, early character teases, and a tiered teaser plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will pursue broad awareness through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format making room for quick shifts to whatever leads the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three unique strategies. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tight, loss-driven, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an artificial companion that escalates into a deadly partner. The date locates it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to mirror off-kilter promo beats and quick hits that blurs devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under development 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 creates space for a official title to become an PR pop closer to the teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. The filmmaker’s films are marketed as director events, with a minimalist tease and a next wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The prime October weekend allows Universal to maximize 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has established that a visceral, hands-on effects approach can feel elevated on a moderate cost. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror shot that pushes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio lines up two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, extending a evergreen supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is framing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both fans and general audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build artifacts around setting detail, and creature effects, elements that can stoke deluxe auditorium demand and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes 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 meticulous craft and textual fidelity, this time driven by werewolf stories. The imprint has already set the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is strong.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform tactics for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal titles window into copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a tiered path that enhances both first-week urgency and sub growth in the later window. Prime Video pairs licensed titles with global acquisitions and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library pulls, using curated hubs, fright rows, and staff picks to extend momentum on overall cume. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix originals and festival deals, timing horror entries closer to launch and eventizing arrivals with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a staged of targeted cinema placements and quick platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has indicated interest to board select projects with acclaimed directors or star-driven packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for sustained usage when the genre conversation intensifies.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is curating a 2026 sequence with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is tight: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, upgraded for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a theatrical rollout for the title, an positive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday frame to move out. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception warrants. Expect 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 tandem, using precision theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By skew, the 2026 slate leans toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The near-term solution is to frame each entry as a new angle. Paramount is elevating character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a European tilt from a buzzed-about director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and talent-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the configuration is steady enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years illuminate the plan. In 2023, a theater-first model that respected streaming windows did not block a hybrid test from paying off when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror exceeded expectations in premium screens. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they shift POV and stretch the story. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters shot consecutively, permits marketing to tie installments through relationships and themes and to keep assets alive without extended gaps.

Production craft signals

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 slate foreshadow a continued emphasis on material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that leans on grain and menace rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in feature stories and craft coverage before rolling out a atmospheric tease that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and generates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta inflection that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature design and production design, which lend themselves to convention floor stunts and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that spotlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is full. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid heftier brand moves. 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 legit, but the palette of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a minimalist tease strategy and limited information drops that trade in concept over detail.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can play the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s digital partner shifts into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: aura-driven 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 difficult boss claw to survive on a desolate island as the control balance reverses and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to menace, founded on Cronin’s material craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting piece that routes the horror through a youngster’s flickering internal vantage. Rating: rating pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-financed and A-list fronted paranormal 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 genre lampoon that pokes at current genre trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further reopens, with a fresh family bound to ancient dread. Rating: to be announced. 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 re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: pending. Production: moving forward. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and primordial menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three grounded forces define this lineup. First, production that stalled or recalendared in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined 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, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will share space across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, aural design, and image-making 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

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand heft where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.