Age-old Dread surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across major platforms

An hair-raising occult scare-fest from creator / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an forgotten terror when foreigners become conduits in a cursed conflict. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching story of perseverance and mythic evil that will resculpt genre cinema this scare season. Visualized by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and eerie feature follows five individuals who wake up stranded in a off-grid dwelling under the dark control of Kyra, a troubled woman controlled by a antiquated sacrosanct terror. Arm yourself to be immersed by a cinematic presentation that melds instinctive fear with spiritual backstory, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a classic narrative in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is challenged when the demons no longer come from a different plane, but rather from within. This symbolizes the most primal facet of the protagonists. The result is a relentless identity crisis where the events becomes a brutal fight between light and darkness.


In a isolated wilderness, five youths find themselves contained under the ominous aura and inhabitation of a shadowy person. As the cast becomes helpless to escape her influence, disconnected and tormented by forces unnamable, they are obligated to confront their inner horrors while the time unforgivingly winds toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety escalates and friendships erode, pushing each soul to scrutinize their core and the structure of self-determination itself. The consequences rise with every instant, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that blends paranormal dread with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to dive into raw dread, an evil before modern man, filtering through our weaknesses, and questioning a will that threatens selfhood when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra meant channeling something beyond human emotion. She is unaware until the entity awakens, and that shift is gut-wrenching because it is so unshielded.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring viewers across the world can dive into this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its intro video, which has been viewed over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, giving access to the movie to lovers of terror across nations.


Join this soul-jarring fall into madness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to face these nightmarish insights about the psyche.


For cast commentary, special features, and social posts from the creators, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across entertainment pages and visit the official movie site.





Current horror’s major pivot: 2025 across markets U.S. rollouts weaves primeval-possession lore, Indie Shockers, paired with brand-name tremors

Across fight-to-live nightmare stories rooted in old testament echoes and stretching into canon extensions plus incisive indie visions, 2025 is lining up as the most dimensioned in tandem with deliberate year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Major studios bookend the months with familiar IP, at the same time platform operators saturate the fall with new voices as well as ancient terrors. On another front, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is drafting behind the carry from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween stays the prime week, the other windows are mapped with care. The fall stretch is the proving field, yet in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are methodical, therefore 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: The Return of Prestige Fear

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a statement play: a contemporary Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a modern-day environment. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Slated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Led by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer eases, Warner Bros. Pictures releases the last chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Granted the structure is classic, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

After that, The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re boards, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retro dread, trauma centered writing, paired with unsettling supernatural order. Here the stakes rise, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, courting teens and the thirty something base. It opens in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Firsts: Modest spend, serious shock

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Next comes Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative featuring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

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

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of 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.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one burrows toward 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.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No IP hangover. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Long Running Lines: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

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

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, under Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Key Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror returns
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

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. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The 2026 Horror lineup: returning titles, universe starters, together with A stacked Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek: The current genre slate clusters up front with a January wave, subsequently unfolds through summer corridors, and straight through the late-year period, balancing franchise firepower, novel approaches, and data-minded counterplay. Major distributors and platforms are betting on right-sized spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and buzz-forward plans that convert genre releases into water-cooler talk.

How the genre looks for 2026

This category has grown into the surest move in programming grids, a corner that can lift when it clicks and still cushion the floor when it misses. After 2023 signaled to strategy teams that efficiently budgeted chillers can command the discourse, the following year continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and quiet over-performers. The run translated to the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is demand for multiple flavors, from legacy continuations to standalone ideas that translate worldwide. The upshot for 2026 is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a blend of recognizable IP and new pitches, and a recommitted priority on box-office windows that feed downstream value on paid VOD and streaming.

Buyers contend the horror lane now serves as a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can launch on a wide range of weekends, furnish a grabby hook for teasers and shorts, and outpace with demo groups that respond on early shows and keep coming through the week two if the release lands. After a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 pattern indicates certainty in that model. The calendar launches with a heavy January window, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a September to October window that connects to holiday-adjacent weekends and afterwards. The calendar also underscores the expanded integration of specialized labels and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and broaden at the precise moment.

A reinforcing pattern is IP cultivation across ongoing universes and classic IP. The studios are not just releasing another next film. They are looking to package lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a title presentation that announces a tonal shift or a star attachment that links a incoming chapter to a early run. At the same time, the helmers behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing material texture, special makeup and site-specific worlds. That interplay delivers 2026 a confident blend of recognition and unexpected turns, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount defines the early cadence with two high-profile plays that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the center, presenting it as both a lineage transfer and a heritage-centered character study. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the artistic posture points to a roots-evoking treatment without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive leaning on brand visuals, first images of characters, and a tease cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 reforming, navigate here with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will emphasize. As a summer relief option, this one will generate broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick switches to whatever tops the conversation that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man installs an machine companion that grows into a fatal companion. The date locates it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s team likely to iterate on strange in-person beats and snackable content that threads love and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title drop to become an marketing beat closer to the initial tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s work are treated as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a next wave of trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor offers Universal room to maximize 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has consistently shown that a blood-soaked, physical-effects centered treatment can feel cinematic on a disciplined budget. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror shock that maximizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio launches two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, carrying a trusty supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is billing as a fresh restart 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 sharper mandate to serve both core fans and novices. The fall slot allows Sony to build materials around canon, and creature builds, elements that can boost premium screens and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror centered on textural authenticity and language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is strong.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s releases head to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a tiered path that maximizes both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the tail. Prime Video will mix licensed films with worldwide entries and brief theater runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library curation, using editorial spots, horror hubs, and curated rows to sustain interest on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays nimble about original films and festival additions, locking in horror entries near their drops and coalescing around rollouts with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a tiered of selective theatrical runs and short jumps to platform that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a per-project basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to pick up select projects with award winners or marquee packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for retention when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 sequence with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is no-nonsense: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, refined for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the autumn weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, marshalling the project through select festivals if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas window to broaden. That positioning has delivered for craft-driven horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception drives. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using mini theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

IP versus fresh ideas

By weight, the 2026 slate skews toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on cultural cachet. The challenge, as ever, is diminishing returns. The workable fix is to market each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is leading with character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the assembly is familiar enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Past-three-year patterns illuminate the template. In 2023, a cinema-first model that respected streaming windows did not preclude a day-date try from paying off when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror hit big in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they shift POV and increase ambition. 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 shot consecutively, provides the means for marketing to relate entries through protagonists and motifs and to continue assets in field without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind these films foreshadow a continued emphasis on hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that centers creep and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead features and technical spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and drives shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-referential reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature work and production design, which lend themselves to convention activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that elevate pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in premium houses.

The schedule at a glance

January is packed. 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 heavier IP. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the spread of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Pre-summer months tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a early fall window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited teasers that elevate concept over story.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift card usage.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner mutates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: mood-led adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss work to survive on a lonely island as the power dynamic tilts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, built on Cronin’s on-set craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting tale that filters its scares through a minor’s unreliable POV. Rating: TBA. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-supported and celebrity-led supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that satirizes today’s horror trends and true crime fervors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 spreads, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household linked to lingering terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A reboot designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward true survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBA. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and ancient menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 lands now

Three practical forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work turnkey scare beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, making room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will line up across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-mid 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 harvest those lanes. 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. 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 sampler, 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 leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, sonics, and cinematography 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, Ready To Roar

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand gravity where needed, 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.