Ancient Evil emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding feature, bowing Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

One unnerving mystic terror film from creator / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an primordial curse when unrelated individuals become conduits in a fiendish ceremony. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a intense narrative of survival and old world terror that will resculpt scare flicks this cool-weather season. Produced by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and cinematic cinema piece follows five people who arise locked in a far-off dwelling under the dark influence of Kyra, a young woman claimed by a time-worn ancient fiend. Be warned to be gripped by a audio-visual spectacle that blends gut-punch terror with ancient myths, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a classic motif in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is reimagined when the demons no longer arise outside the characters, but rather from within. This echoes the haunting version of the protagonists. The result is a harrowing moral showdown where the suspense becomes a intense push-pull between purity and corruption.


In a wilderness-stricken terrain, five youths find themselves isolated under the dark force and grasp of a elusive apparition. As the companions becomes unable to evade her will, disconnected and attacked by creatures unimaginable, they are driven to face their greatest panics while the timeline mercilessly ticks onward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion amplifies and relationships crack, compelling each survivor to challenge their personhood and the foundation of volition itself. The stakes surge with every second, delivering a fear-soaked story that connects spiritual fright with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to explore elemental fright, an entity born of forgotten ages, working through our weaknesses, and dealing with a force that forces self-examination when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra demanded embodying something darker than pain. She is oblivious until the possession kicks in, and that flip is soul-crushing because it is so close.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving users across the world can get immersed in this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its intro video, which has attracted over a viral response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, spreading the horror to a worldwide audience.


Avoid skipping this heart-stopping descent into darkness. Enter *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to face these ghostly lessons about our species.


For teasers, production news, and reveals directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Facebook and TikTok and visit youngandcursed.com.





Today’s horror pivotal crossroads: 2025 across markets U.S. rollouts Mixes primeval-possession lore, signature indie scares, plus series shake-ups

Kicking off with survival horror rooted in primordial scripture and stretching into IP renewals set beside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is coalescing into the most dimensioned together with calculated campaign year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Top studios stabilize the year with familiar IP, in parallel SVOD players flood the fall with first-wave breakthroughs as well as archetypal fear. Across the art-house lane, festival-forward creators is buoyed by the kinetic energy from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, yet in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are methodical, hence 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium genre swings back

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with an audacious swing: a modernized Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a modern-day environment. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Slated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Under Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

At summer’s close, Warner’s pipeline delivers the closing chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the memorable motifs return: nostalgic menace, trauma driven plotting, along with eerie supernatural rules. This time the stakes climb, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The new chapter enriches the lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, bridging teens and legacy players. It arrives in December, locking down the winter tail.

SVOD Originals: No Budget, No Problem

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

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a sealed box body horror arc anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale featuring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Conceived and directed 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 the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Series Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Key Trends

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Laurels convert to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Projection: Fall stack and winter swing card

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The 2026 fright year to come: entries, fresh concepts, in tandem with A packed Calendar optimized for Scares

Dek: The new horror cycle crowds early with a January crush, from there unfolds through June and July, and running into the holidays, balancing brand heft, new voices, and shrewd counterweight. Studios and streamers are prioritizing mid-range economics, big-screen-first runs, and social-driven marketing that elevate these offerings into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

This space has emerged as the consistent option in annual schedules, a space that can lift when it performs and still protect the downside when it doesn’t. After 2023 proved to top brass that low-to-mid budget entries can galvanize the zeitgeist, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with signature-voice projects and sleeper breakouts. The momentum flowed into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is an opening for multiple flavors, from franchise continuations to original features that carry overseas. The sum for 2026 is a grid that is strikingly coherent across the industry, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of established brands and fresh ideas, and a renewed focus on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on paid VOD and SVOD.

Insiders argue the horror lane now functions as a plug-and-play option on the programming map. Horror can launch on most weekends, deliver a simple premise for trailers and TikTok spots, and over-index with crowds that arrive on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the next pass if the movie hits. Emerging from a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 setup demonstrates conviction in that setup. The year gets underway with a stacked January run, then targets spring into early summer for balance, while keeping space for a autumn stretch that flows toward the Halloween corridor and into early November. The grid also features the tightening integration of boutique distributors and OTT outlets that can nurture a platform play, create conversation, and scale up at the timely point.

A parallel macro theme is IP stewardship across connected story worlds and legacy IP. Big banners are not just producing another sequel. They are moving to present story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a reframed mood or a casting pivot that ties a upcoming film to a classic era. At the alongside this, the visionaries behind the eagerly awaited originals are celebrating physical effects work, practical gags and distinct locales. That pairing offers 2026 a smart balance of familiarity and discovery, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount plants an early flag with two headline plays that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the focus, setting it up as both a relay and a heritage-centered character study. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the story approach hints at a classic-referencing campaign without looping the last two entries’ sibling arc. Watch for a push anchored in legacy iconography, first-look character reveals, and a promo sequence hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will emphasize. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will build mass reach through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick updates to whatever owns genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three differentiated releases. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot Get More Info from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tidy, soulful, and commercial: a grieving man purchases an digital partner that grows into a lethal partner. The date places it at the front of a thick month, with marketing at Universal likely to renew eerie street stunts and snackable content that hybridizes devotion and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a proper title to become an fan moment closer to the teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are framed as creative events, with a concept-forward tease and a second wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor affords Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, practical-effects forward strategy can feel top-tier on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio mounts two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, preserving a bankable supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is billing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both franchise faithful and fresh viewers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build artifacts around canon, and creature effects, elements that can amplify IMAX and PLF uptake and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror driven by immersive craft and period language, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus Features has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is glowing.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on known playbooks. The studio’s horror films head to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a stair-step that fortifies both week-one demand and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed content with international acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in back-catalog play, using in-app campaigns, horror hubs, and programmed rows to lengthen the tail on the horror cume. Netflix keeps optionality about original films and festival snaps, confirming horror entries closer to drop and turning into events launches with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a one-two of limited theatrical footprints and prompt platform moves that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to invest in select projects with prestige directors or A-list packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 lane with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is tight: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a cinema-first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday slot to scale. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-driven genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception warrants. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using boutique theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchises versus originals

By volume, 2026 tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage franchise value. The caveat, as ever, is overexposure. The pragmatic answer is to package each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is spotlighting character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is promising a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a European tilt from a emerging director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the configuration is known enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years contextualize the template. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that observed windows did not hamper a parallel release from performing when the brand was trusted. In 2024, director-craft horror surged in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, lets marketing to relate entries through protagonists and motifs and to leave creative active without extended gaps.

Craft and creative trends

The shop talk behind the 2026 entries signal a continued shift toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in feature stories and craft spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that leans on mood over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that centers an original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to fan-con activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that elevate razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that shine in top rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is full. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid heavier IP. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the mix of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth persists.

Early-year through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now can handle 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a bridge slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a minimalist tease strategy and limited information drops that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can play the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. 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 resonates with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card use.

One-sentence dossiers

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 oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s synthetic partner becomes something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss scramble to survive on a lonely island as the pecking order swivels and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, grounded in Cronin’s practical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting piece that channels the fear through a preteen’s shifting subjective view. Rating: to be announced. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-grade and star-led spirit-world 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 satirical comeback that lampoons in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fixations. Rating: pending. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new family anchored to residual nightmares. Rating: pending. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-first horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: undetermined. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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-faithful speech and ancient menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces drive this lineup. First, production that decelerated or rearranged in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more measured 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 releases. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate repeatable beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Calendar math also matters. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, creating valuable space for genre entries that can command a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will compete across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, 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 sleeper-hit hunt 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 press those advantages. 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 rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, efficient placements, 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 detail, aural design, 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.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is name recognition where it counts, original vision where get redirected here it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, protect the mystery, and let the fear sell the seats.