Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases antediluvian malevolence, a chilling supernatural thriller, landing October 2025 on premium platforms

A terrifying otherworldly horror tale from writer / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an long-buried terror when strangers become vehicles in a cursed game. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking journey of living through and ancient evil that will revamp terror storytelling this ghoul season. Realized by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and cinematic motion picture follows five teens who regain consciousness stranded in a wilderness-bound house under the menacing manipulation of Kyra, a cursed figure controlled by a timeless ancient fiend. Get ready to be shaken by a cinematic event that melds raw fear with spiritual backstory, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a well-established theme in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is challenged when the beings no longer come from beyond, but rather inside their minds. This symbolizes the haunting shade of the cast. The result is a enthralling psychological battle where the tension becomes a relentless push-pull between good and evil.


In a forsaken terrain, five souls find themselves sealed under the unholy control and control of a uncanny being. As the team becomes incapable to resist her dominion, exiled and stalked by powers ungraspable, they are compelled to encounter their worst nightmares while the clock coldly strikes toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread surges and alliances collapse, compelling each character to contemplate their character and the foundation of self-determination itself. The consequences escalate with every instant, delivering a terror ride that harmonizes occult fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to tap into raw dread, an threat older than civilization itself, operating within fragile psyche, and testing a spirit that tests the soul when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra demanded embodying something darker than pain. She is oblivious until the possession kicks in, and that flip is eerie because it is so deep.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be available for public screening beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—ensuring watchers in all regions can watch this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its release of trailer #1, which has racked up over notable views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, delivering the story to horror fans worldwide.


Tune in for this haunted path of possession. Stream *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to dive into these evil-rooted truths about the psyche.


For sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and news from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across social media and visit the official movie site.





Modern horror’s pivotal crossroads: the year 2025 U.S. Slate interlaces old-world possession, indie terrors, alongside Franchise Rumbles

Beginning with life-or-death fear rooted in legendary theology and including franchise returns paired with incisive indie visions, 2025 is coalescing into horror’s most layered along with blueprinted year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. major banners lock in tentpoles with established lines, simultaneously streaming platforms flood the fall with new voices and mythic dread. On the independent axis, the artisan tier is buoyed by the uplift from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are disciplined, so 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: The Return of Prestige Fear

The majors are assertive. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 capitalizes.

the Universal banner opens the year with a headline swing: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a sharp contemporary setting. Led by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. landing in mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Led by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

By late summer, Warner’s schedule drops the final chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the outline is tried, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the tone that worked before is intact: retro dread, trauma foregrounded, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It hits in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Digital Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a close quarters body horror study led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. 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. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is an astute call. No overstuffed canon. No continuity burden. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

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

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, guided by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

Trend Lines

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror resurges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the 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. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch 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.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The approaching fright cycle: entries, Originals, plus A packed Calendar calibrated for frights

Dek: The new scare slate loads up front with a January traffic jam, before it extends through midyear, and far into the year-end corridor, marrying brand equity, fresh ideas, and tactical counterplay. Studios with streamers are betting on cost discipline, box-office-first windows, and viral-minded pushes that frame horror entries into culture-wide discussion.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror marketplace has become the steady tool in studio calendars, a corner that can lift when it clicks and still mitigate the drag when it stumbles. After the 2023 year reassured strategy teams that efficiently budgeted pictures can drive pop culture, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with buzzy auteur projects and sleeper breakouts. The run extended into 2025, where revived properties and critical darlings demonstrated there is a market for many shades, from legacy continuations to original features that resonate abroad. The net effect for 2026 is a programming that looks unusually coordinated across the market, with obvious clusters, a equilibrium of marquee IP and novel angles, and a tightened attention on theater exclusivity that drive downstream revenue on premium rental and digital services.

Buyers contend the genre now acts as a wildcard on the release plan. Horror can launch on virtually any date, deliver a simple premise for trailers and vertical videos, and outpace with viewers that arrive on first-look nights and continue through the week two if the offering lands. On the heels of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence underscores belief in that equation. The year commences with a loaded January window, then targets spring into early summer for counterweight, while carving room for a fall corridor that extends to the Halloween corridor and afterwards. The grid also spotlights the greater integration of specialty arms and platforms that can build gradually, ignite recommendations, and widen at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across ongoing universes and storied titles. Major shops are not just greenlighting another entry. They are working to present ongoing narrative with a occasion, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a refreshed voice or a ensemble decision that links a new entry to a heyday. At the alongside this, the creative leads behind the most anticipated originals are championing hands-on technique, real effects and grounded locations. That blend offers the 2026 slate a solid mix of assurance and novelty, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount plants an early flag with two high-profile moves that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the center, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a rootsy character-forward chapter. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the tonal posture conveys a heritage-honoring treatment without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run stacked with recognizable motifs, first images of characters, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will build mainstream recognition through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format enabling quick shifts to whatever dominates genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three distinct pushes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, tragic, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an synthetic partner that becomes a murderous partner. The date locates it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s campaign likely to reprise strange in-person beats and short reels that fuses companionship and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a name unveil to become an teaser payoff closer to the opening teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are positioned as auteur events, with a concept-forward tease and a second trailer wave that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the navigate to this website 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 guides, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a visceral, practical-first approach can feel prestige on a moderate cost. Look for a hard-R summer horror hit that maximizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio lines up two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is billing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both players and general audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build promo materials around setting detail, and creature design, elements that can increase format premiums and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by immersive craft and dialect, this time orbiting lycan myth. The company has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is strong.

Streaming windows and tactics

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a stair-step that maximizes both premiere heat and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix acquired titles with global acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in deep cuts, using editorial spots, Halloween hubs, and programmed rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix plays opportunist about first-party entries and festival wins, locking in horror entries on shorter runways and making event-like releases with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a hybrid of precision releases and swift platform pivots 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 per-project basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to invest in select projects with prestige directors or A-list packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is curating a 2026 arc with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is uncomplicated: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, recalibrated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the year-end corridor to expand. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception prompts. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using limited theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their paid base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By count, 2026 bends toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness household recognition. The challenge, as ever, is fatigue. The standing approach is to position each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is foregrounding character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-tinted vision from a rising filmmaker. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the configuration is grounded enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent-year comps clarify the template. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept streaming intact did not prevent a parallel release from winning when the brand was powerful. In 2024, auteur craft horror rose in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reorient and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot consecutively, creates space for marketing to tie installments through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without doldrums.

Behind-the-camera trends

The director conversations behind the upcoming entries telegraph a continued preference for practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that leans on texture and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft profiles and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for red-band excess, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta-horror reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster aesthetics and world-building, which are ideal for expo activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel must-have. Look for trailers that emphasize hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that shine in top rooms.

Month-by-month map

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 headline IP. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the tone spread creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth holds.

Pre-summer months prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now hosts 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late summer into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited information drops that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s core. 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 AI companion shifts into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: atmospheric 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 unyielding boss work to survive on a desolate island as the power dynamic turns and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller 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 horror, shaped by Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting chiller that refracts terror through a youth’s wavering internal vantage. Rating: forthcoming. Production: fully shot. Positioning: major-studio and toplined eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that lampoons contemporary horror memes and true-crime crazes. Rating: TBA. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household tethered to long-buried horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in true survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBA. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: undetermined. Production: continuing. 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 historical diction and elemental fear. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 and why now

Three grounded forces structure this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-sequenced in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine repeatable beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark check my blog influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can command a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will share space across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play 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 austere, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is franchise muscle where it helps, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.