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

One chilling metaphysical fright fest from screenwriter / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an ancient fear when foreigners become instruments in a malevolent ceremony. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing tale of struggle and prehistoric entity that will reimagine the horror genre this October. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and immersive film follows five individuals who come to imprisoned in a secluded wooden structure under the menacing sway of Kyra, a female lead haunted by a antiquated religious nightmare. Be warned to be gripped by a immersive event that integrates soul-chilling terror with folklore, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a time-honored fixture in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is turned on its head when the monsters no longer form outside their bodies, but rather within themselves. This mirrors the shadowy side of every character. The result is a enthralling moral showdown where the emotions becomes a soul-crushing confrontation between good and evil.


In a barren forest, five young people find themselves stuck under the ghastly dominion and control of a unknown apparition. As the youths becomes unable to deny her dominion, marooned and stalked by spirits ungraspable, they are confronted to deal with their raw vulnerabilities while the moments mercilessly ticks onward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust rises and bonds crack, forcing each soul to reflect on their identity and the foundation of conscious will itself. The intensity amplify with every tick, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that merges spiritual fright with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dig into deep fear, an curse beyond recorded history, channeling itself through fragile psyche, and navigating a curse that forces self-examination when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra was centered on something darker than pain. She is unseeing until the entity awakens, and that metamorphosis is eerie because it is so visceral.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure households internationally can witness this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its release of trailer #1, which has attracted over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, presenting the nightmare to lovers of terror across nations.


Make sure to see this heart-stopping descent into hell. Join *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to explore these terrifying truths about the mind.


For teasers, behind-the-scenes content, and press updates from the creators, follow @YACMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit the movie’s homepage.





Modern horror’s major pivot: 2025 for genre fans U.S. lineup weaves primeval-possession lore, microbudget gut-punches, and series shake-ups

Spanning last-stand terror suffused with biblical myth as well as series comebacks paired with surgical indie voices, 2025 is emerging as the most complex paired with deliberate year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. top-tier distributors stabilize the year with franchise anchors, while SVOD players saturate the fall with new voices alongside old-world menace. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is surfing the backdraft of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are targeted, which means 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal banner kicks off the frame with an audacious swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a sharp contemporary setting. Led by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. dated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Guided by Eli Craig and featuring 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. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

By late summer, Warner’s pipeline delivers the closing chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson resumes command, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: 70s style chill, trauma centered writing, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This run ups the stakes, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The follow up digs further into canon, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It books December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Plays: No Budget, No Problem

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror chamber piece led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Then there is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Conceived and directed 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 unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. That is a savvy move. No swollen lore. No series drag. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Series Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Dials to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

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

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

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. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

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.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The forthcoming 2026 scare Year Ahead: brand plays, original films, alongside A stacked Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek The incoming horror season stacks from day one with a January traffic jam, thereafter carries through midyear, and well into the holiday stretch, weaving brand equity, novel approaches, and savvy counterweight. Major distributors and platforms are betting on right-sized spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that frame these films into all-audience topics.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has turned into the most reliable swing in studio lineups, a pillar that can scale when it resonates and still mitigate the losses when it misses. After 2023 reassured leaders that cost-conscious genre plays can dominate mainstream conversation, 2024 maintained heat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The energy carried into 2025, where legacy revivals and critical darlings showed there is a lane for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to director-led originals that perform internationally. The net effect for 2026 is a schedule that shows rare alignment across players, with strategic blocks, a equilibrium of marquee IP and novel angles, and a re-energized stance on exhibition windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital rental and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the category now acts as a swing piece on the grid. The genre can arrive on a wide range of weekends, deliver a simple premise for trailers and vertical videos, and exceed norms with viewers that arrive on first-look nights and continue through the next weekend if the film satisfies. Following a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 plan signals trust in that dynamic. The calendar rolls out with a front-loaded January band, then targets spring into early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a fall run that carries into All Hallows period and beyond. The grid also highlights the expanded integration of specialty distributors and platforms that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and move wide at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across interlocking continuities and storied titles. The players are not just greenlighting another follow-up. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a occasion, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a re-angled tone or a star attachment that links a latest entry to a early run. At the same time, the auteurs behind the top original plays are returning to physical effects work, special makeup and place-driven backdrops. That convergence hands 2026 a solid mix of brand comfort and novelty, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two centerpiece pushes that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the focus, signaling it as both a baton pass and a classic-mode character-first story. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the authorial approach indicates a fan-service aware campaign without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Plan for a rollout driven by recognizable motifs, character spotlights, and a tease cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will stress. As a summer contrast play, this one will drive wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format fitting quick redirects to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is simple, sorrow-tinged, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that evolves into a lethal partner. The date places it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s team likely to iterate on creepy live activations and micro spots that blurs intimacy and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, Young & Cursed widely considered the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a branding reveal to become an PR pop closer to the opening teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His entries are set up as filmmaker events, with a teaser that holds back and a later trailer push that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway opens a lane to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work 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 starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a tactile, physical-effects centered style can feel prestige on a tight budget. Look for a hard-R summer horror blast that centers worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio deploys two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, maintaining a reliable supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps 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 clearer mandate to serve both core fans and first-timers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build materials around world-building, and practical creature work, elements that can boost premium screens and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by minute detail and archaic language, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus’s team has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Digital strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre entries move to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a tiered path that amplifies both FOMO and subscriber lifts in the after-window. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with international acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in archive usage, using prominent placements, horror hubs, and programmed rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about Netflix films and festival acquisitions, slotting horror entries near their drops and making event-like rollouts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a staged of targeted theatrical exposure and fast windowing that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has signaled readiness to acquire select projects with top-tier auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 slate with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is straightforward: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, reimagined for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the October weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festival season if the cut is ready, then deploying the December frame to expand. That positioning has served the company well for elevated genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception drives. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited runs to ignite evangelism that fuels their audience.

Brands and originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate favors the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate name recognition. The concern, as ever, is diminishing returns. The preferred tactic is to brand each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is underscoring character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a continental coloration from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and talent-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the configuration is familiar enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years announce the model. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that observed windows did not preclude a day-date try from working when the brand was big. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in premium large format. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they shift POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances 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 consecutively, lets marketing to relate entries through protagonists and motifs and to continue assets in field without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The shop talk behind these films foreshadow a continued bias toward 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 in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that emphasizes aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft profiles and artisan spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that elevates tone over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and sparks shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature craft and set design, which match well with expo activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that center disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that benefit on big speakers.

Month-by-month map

January is loaded. 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 somber counterpoint amid bigger brand plays. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the palette of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Early-year through spring load in summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now can handle 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder season window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a slow-reveal plan and limited plot reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can play the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card burn.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s intelligent companion mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 demanding boss fight to survive on a lonely island as the control balance upends and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

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 renewed vision that returns the monster to menace, driven by Cronin’s hands-on craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting piece that leverages the terror of a child’s uncertain senses. Rating: pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A parody reboot that pokes at contemporary horror memes and true-crime crazes. Rating: TBD. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 surges, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a young family caught in ancient dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A new start designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survivalist horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: pending. Production: active. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and ancient menace. Rating: TBD. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three pragmatic forces define this lineup. First, production that eased or re-sequenced in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter timelines. 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 horror has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, offering breathing room for genre entries that can command a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will share space across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 surprise-hit pursuit 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first unexpected 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 cadence and diversity. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, acoustics, and imagery 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

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is franchise muscle where it helps, distinct 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, hold the mystery, and let the fear sell the seats.