Ancient Malevolence Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled horror feature, launching October 2025 across global platforms

A eerie metaphysical fear-driven tale from cinematographer / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an forgotten horror when unknowns become victims in a fiendish struggle. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful chronicle of endurance and old world terror that will reconstruct genre cinema this Halloween season. Guided by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and gothic tale follows five individuals who awaken confined in a secluded shelter under the malevolent manipulation of Kyra, a troubled woman overtaken by a prehistoric ancient fiend. Prepare to be drawn in by a immersive adventure that harmonizes gut-punch terror with arcane tradition, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a iconic pillar in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is reimagined when the spirits no longer appear externally, but rather from their core. This embodies the darkest layer of the protagonists. The result is a bone-chilling moral showdown where the drama becomes a unforgiving push-pull between good and evil.


In a bleak landscape, five adults find themselves cornered under the ghastly aura and control of a secretive character. As the team becomes paralyzed to reject her will, exiled and stalked by beings ungraspable, they are required to battle their deepest fears while the clock ruthlessly pushes forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease escalates and partnerships dissolve, compelling each survivor to question their character and the idea of conscious will itself. The danger climb with every beat, delivering a frightening tale that weaves together paranormal dread with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to evoke deep fear, an curse older than civilization itself, manifesting in emotional vulnerability, and confronting a force that redefines identity when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra meant channeling something rooted in terror. She is innocent until the spirit seizes her, and that flip is shocking because it is so intimate.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing audiences worldwide can get immersed in this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its original promo, which has pulled in over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, exporting the fear to global fright lovers.


Avoid skipping this gripping descent into darkness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to witness these ghostly lessons about the mind.


For previews, production news, and social posts via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit our horror hub.





Modern horror’s tipping point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. release slate weaves ancient-possession motifs, art-house nightmares, in parallel with returning-series thunder

Kicking off with endurance-driven terror steeped in primordial scripture and extending to canon extensions alongside surgical indie voices, 2025 is emerging as the genre’s most multifaceted and strategic year in years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio majors bookend the months with familiar IP, in tandem streamers pack the fall with emerging auteurs paired with mythic dread. In the indie lane, the artisan tier is drafting behind the tailwinds from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Since Halloween is the prized date, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, notably this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are precise, so 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium genre swings back

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s slate leads off the quarter with a confident swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. dated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Under Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

By late summer, Warner’s pipeline delivers the closing chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson is back, and the memorable motifs return: old school creep, trauma explicitly handled, with ghostly inner logic. This run ups the stakes, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The continuation widens the legend, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It arrives in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Offerings: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale featuring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within 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 looks like sharp programming. No overstuffed canon. No sequel clutter. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

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

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

Trend Lines

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror resurges
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

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

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

What’s Next: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The forthcoming 2026 spook cycle: continuations, Originals, alongside A Crowded Calendar engineered for nightmares

Dek The emerging scare calendar stacks at the outset with a January logjam, subsequently flows through the summer months, and carrying into the festive period, weaving series momentum, new concepts, and calculated counterprogramming. The big buyers and platforms are betting on mid-range economics, box-office-first windows, and viral-minded pushes that elevate these pictures into national conversation.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has shown itself to be the sturdy move in annual schedules, a space that can spike when it breaks through and still insulate the drawdown when it does not. After 2023 showed leaders that disciplined-budget horror vehicles can lead mainstream conversation, the following year kept the drumbeat going with festival-darling auteurs and under-the-radar smashes. The tailwind extended into the 2025 frame, where revivals and arthouse crossovers made clear there is capacity for many shades, from sequel tracks to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The end result for the 2026 slate is a roster that looks unusually coordinated across studios, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of brand names and original hooks, and a renewed emphasis on cinema windows that boost PVOD and platform value on PVOD and OTT platforms.

Schedulers say the space now functions as a utility player on the rollout map. Horror can debut on many corridors, supply a simple premise for ad units and short-form placements, and overperform with crowds that arrive on first-look nights and stay strong through the second weekend if the film lands. Post a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 pattern signals confidence in that equation. The year begins with a heavy January corridor, then targets spring into early summer for genre counterpoints, while making space for a October build that connects to the Halloween corridor and into early November. The grid also features the greater integration of indie distributors and home platforms that can grow from platform, spark evangelism, and scale up at the strategic time.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across interlocking continuities and legacy franchises. Studio teams are not just making another follow-up. They are trying to present continuity with a specialness, whether that is a logo package that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting move that binds a upcoming film to a first wave. At the in tandem, the directors behind the most watched originals are celebrating real-world builds, practical gags and location-forward worlds. That mix hands 2026 a strong blend of familiarity and invention, which is how the genre sells abroad.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount sets the tone early with two big-ticket pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the core, presenting it as both a baton pass and a back-to-basics character-focused installment. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the authorial approach signals a nostalgia-forward approach without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push fueled by recognizable motifs, intro reveals, and a trailer cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will double down on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will go after broad awareness through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick reframes to whatever shapes the discourse that spring.

Universal has three unique lanes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is elegant, heartbroken, and commercial: a grieving man installs an digital partner that becomes a killer companion. The date puts it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s campaign likely to renew uncanny live moments and bite-size content that fuses devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a proper title to become an earned moment closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are presented as event films, with a mystery-first teaser and a later trailer push that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The spooky-season slot opens a lane to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered execution can feel top-tier on a disciplined budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror charge that maximizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio places two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, continuing a reliable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is billing as a new foundation 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 explicit mandate to serve both franchise faithful and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around canon, and monster craft, elements that can drive deluxe auditorium demand and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on minute detail and linguistic texture, this time orbiting lycan myth. The imprint has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is supportive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Digital strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal titles window into copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a structure that elevates both first-week urgency and sign-up spikes in the late-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed content with global acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in archive usage, using timely promos, October hubs, and staff picks to stretch the tail on overall cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival buys, locking in horror entries near their drops and positioning as event drops debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a tiered of selective theatrical runs and rapid platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a per-project basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to invest in select projects with prestige directors or A-list packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 corridor with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is tight: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, reimagined for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a standard theatrical run for the title, an promising marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the back half.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday slot to open out. That positioning has shown results for arthouse horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception warrants. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using mini theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchises versus originals

By share, the 2026 slate leans toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage legacy awareness. The concern, as ever, is brand wear. The near-term solution is to sell each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is spotlighting character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-flavored turn from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the team and cast is anchored enough to drive advance ticketing and advance-audience nights.

Three-year comps outline the strategy. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not block a day-date try from hitting when the brand was big. In 2024, auteur craft horror hit big in PLF. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga made his comment is here clear that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they rotate perspective and widen scale. 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 lensed back-to-back, enables marketing to tie installments through character and theme and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The shop talk behind the year’s horror hint at a continued turn toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that emphasizes tone and tension rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and guild coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and generates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta-horror reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature execution and sets, which play well in convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel key. Look for trailers that spotlight disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in big rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is crowded. Universal’s 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 foggy reset amid bigger brand plays. The month ends 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 formidable, but the range of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth carries.

Winter into spring load in summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Back half into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited teasers that favor idea over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. 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, rolling out carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s AI companion grows into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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 collide with a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her unyielding boss struggle to survive on a far-flung island as the hierarchy tilts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to fear, based on Cronin’s tactile craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting tale that refracts terror through a child’s unsteady perspective. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

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 spoof revival that riffs on present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography set 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 erupts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a fresh family caught in lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead navigate here of late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. 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: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: pending. Production: in progress. 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 era-accurate language and elemental dread. Rating: pending. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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

Why 2026, why now

Three hands-on forces shape this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-sequenced in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and accelerated schedules. 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage bite-size scare clips from test screenings, managed scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, offering breathing room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 use those gaps. 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. 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, lean 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 detail, soundcraft, and camera work 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

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is IP strength where it matters, new vision where it lands, 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the fear sell the seats.