Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streamers

This haunting paranormal shockfest from cinematographer / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an prehistoric fear when guests become victims in a satanic maze. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving saga of endurance and timeless dread that will alter terror storytelling this spooky time. Realized by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and shadowy feature follows five unacquainted souls who snap to ensnared in a isolated wooden structure under the aggressive manipulation of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a antiquated scriptural evil. Get ready to be immersed by a visual event that blends visceral dread with arcane tradition, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a classic trope in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is reimagined when the beings no longer manifest beyond the self, but rather from deep inside. This mirrors the most hidden shade of the victims. The result is a edge-of-seat internal warfare where the events becomes a soul-crushing contest between righteousness and malevolence.


In a unforgiving forest, five adults find themselves trapped under the ghastly presence and control of a elusive figure. As the characters becomes submissive to withstand her will, marooned and pursued by spirits indescribable, they are thrust to battle their deepest fears while the moments without pity counts down toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety intensifies and partnerships collapse, demanding each character to reconsider their being and the idea of volition itself. The pressure magnify with every breath, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that blends unearthly horror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to tap into deep fear, an entity rooted in antiquity, embedding itself in fragile psyche, and wrestling with a force that challenges autonomy when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra involved tapping into something unfamiliar to reason. She is ignorant until the haunting manifests, and that transformation is bone-chilling because it is so deep.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure households around the globe can experience this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first preview, which has been viewed over strong viewer count.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to scare fans abroad.


Be sure to catch this life-altering ride through nightmares. Explore *Young & Cursed* this launch day to dive into these spiritual awakenings about the soul.


For featurettes, production news, and insider scoops from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursed across media channels and visit our film’s homepage.





American horror’s tipping point: the 2025 cycle domestic schedule braids together primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, alongside franchise surges

Running from endurance-driven terror drawn from near-Eastern lore through to installment follow-ups in concert with surgical indie voices, 2025 is shaping up as the most dimensioned and calculated campaign year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio majors lay down anchors with familiar IP, as SVOD players pack the fall with debut heat set against mythic dread. At the same time, the independent cohort is catching the momentum from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween stays the prime week, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, distinctly in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are disciplined, as a result 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium genre swings back

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s schedule opens the year with a headline swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, instead in a current-day frame. Under director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Slated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. Pictures launches the swan song from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Despite a known recipe, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson resumes command, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retro dread, trauma centered writing, and a cold supernatural calculus. The ante is higher this round, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The continuation widens the legend, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It lands in December, pinning the winter close.

Digital Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror duet with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: 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 Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. That is a savvy move. No overstuffed canon. No series drag. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

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

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Franchise Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, with Francis Lawrence directing, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
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 exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror returns
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The next scare year to come: returning titles, original films, together with A packed Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek: The upcoming scare slate crams up front with a January pile-up, after that flows through midyear, and pushing into the holiday frame, weaving franchise firepower, inventive spins, and tactical counterprogramming. Studios with streamers are leaning into tight budgets, box-office-first windows, and shareable marketing that elevate the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror marketplace has proven to be the bankable tool in studio calendars, a vertical that can spike when it lands and still insulate the drag when it underperforms. After 2023 reconfirmed for greenlighters that modestly budgeted chillers can own mainstream conversation, 2024 extended the rally with director-led heat and sleeper breakouts. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where returns and premium-leaning entries proved there is capacity for diverse approaches, from franchise continuations to original one-offs that carry overseas. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a roster that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with mapped-out bands, a pairing of legacy names and untested plays, and a re-energized eye on theater exclusivity that increase tail monetization on premium home window and subscription services.

Buyers contend the genre now performs as a versatile piece on the slate. The genre can debut on nearly any frame, create a tight logline for trailers and platform-native cuts, and overperform with demo groups that line up on Thursday nights and stick through the second weekend if the title fires. After a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence exhibits confidence in that model. The calendar commences with a crowded January run, then uses spring and early summer for contrast, while clearing room for a late-year stretch that stretches into late October and into post-Halloween. The map also features the expanded integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and expand at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is IP cultivation across shared universes and legacy franchises. The companies are not just releasing another sequel. They are looking to package lore continuity with a occasion, whether that is a title design that flags a new vibe or a star attachment that connects a upcoming film to a classic era. At the concurrently, the creative leads behind the marquee originals are leaning into in-camera technique, in-camera effects and grounded locations. That blend provides the 2026 slate a solid mix of brand comfort and novelty, which is what works overseas.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount establishes early momentum with two front-of-slate projects that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the heart, signaling it as both a lineage transfer and a DNA-forward character-first story. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach conveys a throwback-friendly bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run fueled by signature symbols, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a counterweight in summer, this one will build wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick turns to whatever rules the social talk that spring.

Universal has three defined plays. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is efficient, soulful, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an digital partner that becomes a fatal companion. The date locates it at the front of a packed window, with the Universal machine likely to renew creepy live activations and micro spots that mixes companionship and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title drop to become an marketing beat closer to the first look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are set up as must-see filmmaker statements, with a minimalist tease and a second wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date gives Universal room to lead 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has demonstrated that a gnarly, in-camera leaning style can feel premium on a efficient spend. Expect a gore-forward summer horror blast that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio books two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, continuing a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is framing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both loyalists and curious audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign pieces around environmental design, and monster craft, elements that can increase large-format 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 advances Eggers’ run of period horror centered on minute detail and dialect, this time orbiting lycan myth. The imprint has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is warm.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal titles shift to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a stair-step that boosts both premiere heat and sign-up momentum in the back half. Prime Video balances library titles with cross-border buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library engagement, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival wins, locking in horror entries near launch and turning into events debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a laddered of limited theatrical footprints and short jumps to platform that turns chatter to conversion. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has proven amenable to invest in select projects with recognized filmmakers or star packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 lane with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is no-nonsense: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, updated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, managing the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then working the holiday slot to broaden. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception drives. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchises versus originals

By count, 2026 leans toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate brand equity. The risk, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is spotlighting character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the deal build is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns contextualize the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that held distribution windows did not hamper a parallel release from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror exceeded expectations in PLF. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they rotate perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends 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, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through character web and themes and to leave creative active without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 slate point to a continued lean toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that leans on texture and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and technical spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and drives shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta refresh that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature and environment design, which work nicely for convention floor stunts and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel irresistible. Look for trailers that foreground razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that work in PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is loaded. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid bigger brand plays. The month finishes 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 meaningful, but the tonal variety opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late winter and spring prime the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

End of summer through fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a slow-reveal plan and limited disclosures that elevate concept over story.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner escalates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 hard-edged boss battle to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic inverts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to nightmare, based on Cronin’s hands-on craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting scenario that filters its scares through a minor’s shifting inner lens. Rating: rating pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-grade and toplined supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A satire sequel that lampoons hot-button genre motifs and true crime preoccupations. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 breaks out, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further opens again, with a unlucky family bound to returning horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: pending. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top have a peek at this web-site cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and elemental menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three execution-level forces shape this lineup. First, production that decelerated or rearranged in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on clippable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 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 surprise over-performer 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, aural design, and visuals that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is franchise muscle where it helps, original 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.