Primordial Terror Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling chiller, premiering Oct 2025 on top digital platforms

This blood-curdling spectral terror film from narrative craftsman / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an long-buried evil when strangers become puppets in a dark experiment. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing saga of staying alive and mythic evil that will transform scare flicks this October. Crafted by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and shadowy tale follows five lost souls who find themselves isolated in a wilderness-bound shelter under the aggressive will of Kyra, a troubled woman controlled by a biblical-era biblical demon. Be warned to be enthralled by a audio-visual display that combines intense horror with folklore, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a legendary theme in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is reversed when the dark entities no longer develop from elsewhere, but rather within themselves. This embodies the darkest part of the group. The result is a bone-chilling identity crisis where the tension becomes a soul-crushing conflict between virtue and vice.


In a isolated wilderness, five characters find themselves marooned under the evil aura and inhabitation of a elusive female presence. As the cast becomes vulnerable to withstand her control, cut off and targeted by beings mind-shattering, they are thrust to stand before their inner horrors while the doomsday meter unforgivingly moves toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety intensifies and partnerships splinter, urging each member to scrutinize their being and the structure of conscious will itself. The danger rise with every breath, delivering a horror experience that combines supernatural terror with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to dive into primitive panic, an threat rooted in antiquity, channeling itself through our fears, and exposing a power that tests the soul when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra meant channeling something deeper than fear. She is unseeing until the curse activates, and that evolution is eerie because it is so personal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing audiences across the world can face this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original promo, which has racked up over 100K plays.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, exporting the fear to scare fans abroad.


Join this unforgettable fall into madness. Face *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to dive into these terrifying truths about free will.


For sneak peeks, special features, and reveals from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit youngandcursed.com.





Current horror’s Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. lineup interlaces Mythic Possession, independent shockers, alongside IP aftershocks

Kicking off with endurance-driven terror steeped in ancient scripture and onward to returning series and cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 stands to become the most variegated paired with strategic year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Top studios stabilize the year with known properties, in tandem OTT services crowd the fall with emerging auteurs alongside mythic dread. On the festival side, festival-forward creators is catching the carry of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are exacting, hence 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

Universal Pictures kicks off the frame with a bold swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in an immediate now. From director Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. arriving mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Steered by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer wanes, the Warner Bros. banner unveils the final movement inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re boards, and the memorable motifs return: nostalgic menace, trauma driven plotting, with ghostly inner logic. This run ups the stakes, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The follow up digs further into canon, builds out the animatronic fear crew, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It drops in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streamer Exclusives: Tight funds, wide impact

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable 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 project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. That is a savvy move. No overinflated mythology. No legacy baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. 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 should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, from Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

Trends to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror returns
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

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

Festival hype becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Forward View: Fall crush plus winter X factor

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The next fear release year: entries, universe starters, And A packed Calendar aimed at chills

Dek: The fresh genre calendar crams immediately with a January wave, thereafter runs through the summer months, and deep into the holiday stretch, balancing legacy muscle, fresh ideas, and savvy counterplay. The big buyers and platforms are relying on right-sized spends, big-screen-first runs, and viral-minded pushes that frame these offerings into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the consistent lever in studio slates, a genre that can lift when it breaks through and still insulate the liability when it misses. After the 2023 year signaled to top brass that mid-range entries can shape the discourse, 2024 sustained momentum with director-led heat and word-of-mouth wins. The run extended into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries proved there is capacity for diverse approaches, from sequel tracks to standalone ideas that perform internationally. The aggregate for 2026 is a schedule that is strikingly coherent across the market, with clear date clusters, a balance of brand names and fresh ideas, and a renewed strategy on release windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium digital and digital services.

Planners observe the horror lane now serves as a utility player on the calendar. The genre can launch on numerous frames, furnish a simple premise for marketing and platform-native cuts, and outperform with fans that arrive on Thursday previews and hold through the next pass if the film hits. Coming out of a production delay era, the 2026 layout demonstrates conviction in that approach. The calendar launches with a loaded January corridor, then exploits spring through early summer for contrast, while keeping space for a fall corridor that pushes into Halloween and into early November. The map also illustrates the greater integration of indie arms and platforms that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and widen at the optimal moment.

A further high-level trend is franchise tending across shared universes and legacy IP. Studio teams are not just pushing another installment. They are trying to present lore continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a logo package that indicates a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that bridges a incoming chapter to a original cycle. At the meanwhile, the creative teams behind the most watched originals are prioritizing hands-on technique, practical gags and specific settings. That pairing delivers 2026 a solid mix of known notes and unexpected turns, which is how the genre sells abroad.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount leads early with two big-ticket pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the core, positioning the film as both a handoff and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture points to a fan-service aware mode without covering again the last two entries’ sisters thread. Watch for a push anchored in legacy iconography, intro reveals, and a staggered trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also revives 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 as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will feature. As a counterweight in summer, this one will hunt large awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick shifts to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three separate lanes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is efficient, tragic, and concept-forward: a grieving man adopts an machine companion that turns into a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the Universal machine likely to bring back odd public stunts and micro spots that mixes attachment and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the early tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s work are set up as event films, with a opaque teaser and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway gives Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, practical-first mix can feel high-value on a moderate cost. Position this as a hard-R summer horror shot that embraces international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio deploys two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, maintaining a evergreen supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is selling as a new take 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 focus to serve both core fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around narrative world, and practical creature work, elements that can drive PLF interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by careful craft and language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The specialty arm has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s horror titles land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a cadence that fortifies both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video continues to 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 featured rows to keep attention on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival deals, confirming horror entries tight to release and making event-like premieres with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a tiered of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that translates talk to trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a situational basis. The platform has proven amenable to acquire select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 slate with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is tight: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, reimagined for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a cinema-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas corridor to open out. That positioning has proved effective for auteur horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception supports. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using select theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their audience.

Known brands versus new stories

By proportion, 2026 skews toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage household recognition. The risk, as ever, is overexposure. The go-to fix is to present each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is emphasizing character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-accented approach from a rising filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the team and cast is known enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent-year comps outline the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that honored streaming windows did not stop a day-date try from succeeding when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror over-performed in premium formats. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they shift POV 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, permits marketing to connect the chapters through character spine and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

Behind-the-camera trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the upcoming entries suggest a continued preference for real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that spotlights aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature craft and set design, which align with expo activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that center precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that work in PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is jammed. 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 marquee brands. The month closes 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 stiff, but the menu of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Early-year through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

August and September into October leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that center concept over reveals.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s artificial companion becomes something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 difficult boss work to survive on a far-flung island as the power balance of power reverses and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to menace, anchored by Cronin’s physical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting piece that twists the unease of a child’s tricky senses. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-built and name-above-title supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A parody reboot that lampoons modern genre fads and true crime fixations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an transnational 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: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new household tethered to lingering terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward pure survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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-specific language and bone-deep menace. Rating: TBA. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces inform this lineup. First, production that paused or re-slotted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, managed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will cluster across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, 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 sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two 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 sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The navigate to this website Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, soundscape, and framing 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is name recognition where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.