Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a bone chilling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across major platforms

A spine-tingling occult scare-fest from narrative craftsman / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an primordial curse when unrelated individuals become pawns in a hellish ordeal. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing episode of perseverance and forgotten curse that will remodel the fear genre this Halloween season. Guided by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and claustrophobic film follows five characters who arise caught in a unreachable wooden structure under the hostile influence of Kyra, a possessed female consumed by a ancient holy text monster. Be warned to be hooked by a audio-visual display that blends instinctive fear with biblical origins, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a iconic fixture in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is twisted when the fiends no longer emerge externally, but rather from their core. This depicts the deepest part of the players. The result is a enthralling psychological battle where the plotline becomes a unyielding fight between divinity and wickedness.


In a desolate wild, five characters find themselves cornered under the ominous force and domination of a unidentified entity. As the group becomes incapacitated to break her dominion, cut off and followed by presences inconceivable, they are made to wrestle with their emotional phantoms while the deathwatch brutally moves toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease rises and links dissolve, pressuring each participant to scrutinize their existence and the nature of decision-making itself. The tension escalate with every beat, delivering a frightening tale that marries spiritual fright with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to evoke raw dread, an power that predates humanity, influencing human fragility, and challenging a curse that dismantles free will when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra needed manifesting something rooted in terror. She is insensitive until the curse activates, and that evolution is eerie because it is so emotional.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—delivering horror lovers around the globe can face this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first trailer, which has garnered over six-figure audience.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, exporting the fear to global fright lovers.


Tune in for this visceral path of possession. Join *Young & Cursed* this launch day to survive these evil-rooted truths about existence.


For sneak peeks, director cuts, and alerts from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit the official movie site.





Today’s horror Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. calendar braids together old-world possession, signature indie scares, set against tentpole growls

Running from survival horror inspired by old testament echoes and stretching into series comebacks alongside keen independent perspectives, 2025 looks like the most stratified combined with deliberate year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios lay down anchors with established lines, in parallel platform operators load up the fall with fresh voices in concert with legend-coded dread. At the same time, the artisan tier is propelled by the tailwinds from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The fall stretch is the proving field, and in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: The Return of Prestige Fear

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

Universal’s schedule sets the tone with a statement play: a refreshed Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a sharp contemporary setting. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. timed for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Led by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline releases the last chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: 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 sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson returns, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, and a cold supernatural calculus. The bar is raised this go, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, bridging teens and legacy players. It opens in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Offerings: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable featuring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No sequel clutter. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Brands: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, from Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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 Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror retakes ground
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

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

Festival glow translates to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The approaching fear cycle: entries, filmmaker-first projects, plus A loaded Calendar optimized for Scares

Dek: The upcoming scare year lines up from day one with a January pile-up, from there rolls through the summer months, and running into the year-end corridor, combining series momentum, untold stories, and tactical release strategy. Studios with streamers are embracing right-sized spends, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that convert these pictures into culture-wide discussion.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror marketplace has grown into the most reliable lever in release plans, a category that can scale when it hits and still limit the liability when it under-delivers. After 2023 reminded buyers that efficiently budgeted chillers can lead cultural conversation, the following year maintained heat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The upswing flowed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is an opening for different modes, from returning installments to standalone ideas that translate worldwide. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a run that is strikingly coherent across players, with defined corridors, a equilibrium of legacy names and original hooks, and a sharpened priority on theatrical windows that power the aftermarket on premium rental and home streaming.

Buyers contend the category now slots in as a flex slot on the rollout map. The genre can launch on a wide range of weekends, generate a clean hook for teasers and platform-native cuts, and lead with moviegoers that line up on previews Thursday and stay strong through the second weekend if the movie works. Following a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 plan exhibits faith in that engine. The year begins with a thick January run, then turns to spring and early summer for contrast, while making space for a autumn stretch that stretches into the Halloween corridor and past the holiday. The map also shows the expanded integration of specialty arms and SVOD players that can grow from platform, stoke social talk, and expand at the proper time.

A parallel macro theme is brand strategy across linked properties and legacy franchises. The companies are not just rolling another continuation. They are seeking to position lore continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a brandmark that flags a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that links a incoming chapter to a initial period. At the concurrently, the helmers behind the eagerly awaited originals are returning to hands-on technique, on-set effects and distinct locales. That interplay delivers the 2026 slate a robust balance of brand comfort and invention, which is how the films export.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount opens strong with two prominent entries that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the core, setting it up as both a baton pass and a back-to-basics character piece. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach points to a nostalgia-forward mode without retreading the last two entries’ family thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive driven by iconic art, initial cast looks, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will lean on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will drive wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format fitting quick redirects to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is straightforward, somber, and premise-first: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that escalates into a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s marketing likely to echo eerie street stunts and micro spots that fuses devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a branding reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. The filmmaker’s films are positioned as marquee events, with a minimalist tease and a next wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The spooky-season slot gives the studio room to saturate 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has long shown that a gnarly, on-set effects led aesthetic can feel high-value on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror charge that leans hard into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio rolls out two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, extending a evergreen supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is describing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both fans and general audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign pieces around environmental design, and creature effects, elements that can drive premium screens and fandom activation.

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 continues Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in careful craft and dialect, this time orbiting lycan myth. The specialty arm has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is robust.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform tactics for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre slate head to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a structure that expands both first-week urgency and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends outside acquisitions with global acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data points to it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and featured rows to maximize the tail on the horror cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about internal projects and festival additions, timing horror entries on shorter runways and framing as events rollouts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a dual-phase of focused cinema runs and speedy platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation builds.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 corridor with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, updated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday frame to go wider. That positioning has been successful for prestige horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. Plan on 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 jointly, using select theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By number, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The trade-off, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to frame each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is foregrounding core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-inflected take from a new voice. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the deal build is known enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Three-year comps contextualize the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that held distribution windows did not foreclose a day-and-date experiment from paying off when the brand was compelling. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror punched above its weight in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they shift POV and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, provides the means for marketing to link the films through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without pause points.

How the films are being made

The craft rooms behind the 2026 entries foreshadow a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that underscores texture and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in trade spotlights and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and gathers shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta reframe that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature work and production design, which favor fan-con activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel must-have. Look for trailers that spotlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that explode in larger rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is loaded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid heftier brand moves. The month winds down 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 legit, but the menu of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

February through May stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now hosts 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can deliver 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 cycled through PLF.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-October slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited asset reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects 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 heartbroken man’s machine mate turns into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 demanding boss struggle to survive on a lonely island as the power dynamic tilts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fright, rooted in Cronin’s practical effects and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting scenario that twists the unease of a child’s shaky point of view. Rating: pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-grade and A-list fronted supernatural suspense.

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 send-up revival that teases of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fixations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: navigate to this website TBD per campaign. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a unlucky family entangled with lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A new start designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: undetermined. Production: proceeding. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and elemental fear. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces frame this lineup. First, production that eased or recalendared in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify shareable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will line up across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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 rhythm and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, aural design, and imagery 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 shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand power where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards Get More Info and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the scares sell the seats.