Ancient Evil Returns within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding thriller, bowing October 2025 across major streaming services

An hair-raising occult horror tale from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an long-buried dread when unrelated individuals become victims in a malevolent ordeal. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing narrative of struggle and prehistoric entity that will reimagine horror this autumn. Crafted by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and moody fearfest follows five unknowns who are stirred imprisoned in a off-grid wooden structure under the hostile command of Kyra, a troubled woman claimed by a 2,000-year-old holy text monster. Anticipate to be gripped by a screen-based spectacle that integrates intense horror with mystical narratives, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a iconic concept in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is turned on its head when the dark entities no longer form from elsewhere, but rather deep within. This embodies the grimmest side of all involved. The result is a psychologically brutal emotional conflict where the conflict becomes a intense confrontation between good and evil.


In a forsaken natural abyss, five youths find themselves imprisoned under the unholy aura and haunting of a enigmatic entity. As the protagonists becomes unable to resist her will, stranded and followed by spirits beyond comprehension, they are compelled to confront their raw vulnerabilities while the seconds relentlessly moves toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust escalates and alliances collapse, urging each protagonist to rethink their self and the philosophy of volition itself. The intensity amplify with every minute, delivering a cinematic nightmare that connects ghostly evil with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to evoke core terror, an entity beyond recorded history, operating within soul-level flaws, and dealing with a entity that tests the soul when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra meant evoking something beneath mortal despair. She is blind until the entity awakens, and that turn is shocking because it is so internal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing fans from coast to coast can witness this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its initial teaser, which has gathered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, bringing the film to international horror buffs.


Tune in for this heart-stopping ride through nightmares. Confront *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to experience these spiritual awakenings about inner darkness.


For bonus footage, behind-the-scenes content, and press updates from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit the movie portal.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: the 2025 season American release plan Mixes primeval-possession lore, independent shockers, alongside returning-series thunder

Beginning with endurance-driven terror rooted in scriptural legend and extending to installment follow-ups paired with acutely observed indies, 2025 is emerging as the most dimensioned together with intentionally scheduled year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Top studios stabilize the year by way of signature titles, in tandem subscription platforms pack the fall with new perspectives plus archetypal fear. Across the art-house lane, the artisan tier is catching the carry of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, distinctly in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are targeted, thus 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: High-craft horror returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s distribution arm kicks off the frame with a headline swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Guided by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. Slated for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. From director Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. unveils the final movement from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 follows. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the memorable motifs return: vintage toned fear, trauma foregrounded, paired with unsettling supernatural order. Here the stakes rise, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The next entry deepens the tale, grows the animatronic horror lineup, reaching teens and game grownups. It books December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story with Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a clever angle. No swollen lore. No brand fatigue. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading 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.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, led by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Key Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror ascends again
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

The Road Ahead: Autumn density and winter pivot

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

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 next chiller slate: installments, standalone ideas, and also A stacked Calendar calibrated for Scares

Dek The emerging horror calendar packs early with a January wave, thereafter rolls through the warm months, and far into the late-year period, balancing franchise firepower, untold stories, and savvy calendar placement. Studios with streamers are doubling down on mid-range economics, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that turn these pictures into culture-wide discussion.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror sector has shown itself to be the most reliable swing in studio slates, a segment that can break out when it connects and still protect the drawdown when it stumbles. After the 2023 year re-taught greenlighters that mid-range shockers can lead the national conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The trend translated to 2025, where revived properties and festival-grade titles signaled there is a market for many shades, from ongoing IP entries to director-led originals that travel well. The sum for the 2026 slate is a lineup that looks unusually coordinated across players, with strategic blocks, a balance of legacy names and first-time concepts, and a refocused stance on big-screen windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital and platforms.

Buyers contend the horror lane now slots in as a versatile piece on the programming map. The genre can roll out on virtually any date, deliver a tight logline for creative and shorts, and punch above weight with crowds that show up on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the release lands. On the heels of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 rhythm telegraphs confidence in that engine. The slate starts with a busy January schedule, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while saving space for a late-year stretch that extends to the Halloween corridor and into post-Halloween. The program also shows the greater integration of specialized imprints and platforms that can build gradually, ignite recommendations, and expand at the precise moment.

An added macro current is IP stewardship across unified worlds and established properties. The players are not just mounting another return. They are trying to present connection with a must-see charge, whether that is a title design that suggests a fresh attitude or a casting pivot that ties a incoming chapter to a first wave. At the parallel to that, the visionaries behind the high-profile originals are prioritizing tactile craft, practical gags and place-driven backdrops. That interplay yields 2026 a healthy mix of assurance and discovery, which is the formula for international play.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two centerpiece projects that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the center, framing it as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward character-first story. Production is active in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a legacy-leaning campaign without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push anchored in this page legacy iconography, character previews, and a tiered teaser plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will foreground. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will pursue general-audience talk through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format inviting quick shifts to whatever shapes horror talk that spring.

Universal has three separate entries. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tight, heartbroken, and big-hook: a grieving man onboards an machine companion that shifts into a lethal partner. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to reprise viral uncanny stunts and quick hits that hybridizes devotion and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Check This Out Savage project, which leaves room for a public title to become an event moment closer to the early tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s releases are positioned as auteur events, with a concept-forward tease and a second trailer wave that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-month date gives Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy aesthetic can feel premium on a efficient spend. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror charge that emphasizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio books two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, holding a bankable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is selling as a ground-zero restart 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 clearer mandate to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build assets around mythos, and monster craft, elements that can stoke premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by textural authenticity and archaic language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The imprint has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is favorable.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform plans for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre entries shift to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that elevates both FOMO and trial spikes in the after-window. Prime Video will mix library titles with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using editorial spots, holiday hubs, and collection rows to keep attention on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix films and festival buys, slotting horror entries tight to release and making event-like drops with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of selective theatrical runs and fast windowing that drives paid trials from buzz. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a per-project basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to take on select projects with acclaimed directors or name-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 arc with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is clean: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, retooled for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a standard theatrical run for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday frame to open out. That positioning has shown results for director-led genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception encourages. Do not be surprised by 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 in parallel, using limited theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The risk, as ever, is staleness. The preferred tactic is to present each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is emphasizing character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is floating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects keep oxygen in the system. 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 stranded survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the deal build is comforting enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

The last three-year set frame the model. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept streaming intact did not prevent a day-date move from performing when the brand was potent. In 2024, precision craft horror surged in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, lets marketing to link the films through relationships and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind this year’s genre point to a continued turn toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that underscores creep and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft features before rolling out a first look that keeps plot minimal, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for red-band excess, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and drives shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta recalibration that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature work and production design, which favor fan-con activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that underscore disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that benefit on big speakers.

Month-by-month map

January is crowded. 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 atmospheric change-up amid big-brand pushes. 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 serious, but the tone spread lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Late winter and spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late-season stretch leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil follows September 18, a pre-October slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited previews that lean on concept not plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s virtual companion shifts into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 battle to survive on a rugged island as the power dynamic reverses and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to horror, founded on Cronin’s physical craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 intimate haunting piece that manipulates the fright of a child’s inconsistent impressions. Rating: pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that targets present-day genre chatter and true crime fixations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new household snared by residual nightmares. Rating: pending. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-first horror over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: closely held. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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-precise speech and primordial menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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, movies with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three execution-level forces shape this lineup. First, production that paused or re-sequenced in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming landings. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest social-ready stingers from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Calendar math also matters. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, providing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will compete across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first quiet 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sonics, and visual design 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 rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand gravity where needed, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the scares sell the seats.