Ancient Terror Awakens within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding feature, landing October 2025 across major platforms

A terrifying mystic horror tale from storyteller / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an age-old dread when unrelated individuals become instruments in a dark ritual. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing journey of survival and archaic horror that will resculpt the horror genre this harvest season. Produced by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and shadowy cinema piece follows five individuals who wake up sealed in a cut-off shack under the hostile influence of Kyra, a young woman haunted by a biblical-era sacrosanct terror. Be prepared to be ensnared by a visual spectacle that melds instinctive fear with timeless legends, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a time-honored element in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is turned on its head when the dark entities no longer develop outside their bodies, but rather within themselves. This echoes the most sinister part of each of them. The result is a relentless mind game where the suspense becomes a perpetual tug-of-war between righteousness and malevolence.


In a isolated landscape, five souls find themselves imprisoned under the ghastly sway and curse of a mysterious spirit. As the ensemble becomes defenseless to evade her influence, severed and stalked by creatures unnamable, they are forced to battle their greatest panics while the final hour ruthlessly moves toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension mounts and links dissolve, pushing each soul to examine their existence and the notion of autonomy itself. The stakes climb with every beat, delivering a frightening tale that weaves together paranormal dread with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to dig into primal fear, an force beyond time, operating within human fragility, and highlighting a darkness that questions who we are when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant evoking something beneath mortal despair. She is blind until the haunting manifests, and that turn is eerie because it is so personal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audiences beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering households no matter where they are can experience this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its release of trailer #1, which has pulled in over notable views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, making the film to international horror buffs.


Avoid skipping this life-altering ride through nightmares. Face *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to acknowledge these fearful discoveries about free will.


For director insights, production insights, and news via the production team, follow @YACMovie across online outlets and visit youngandcursed.com.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: 2025 across markets U.S. release slate braids together old-world possession, Indie Shockers, alongside series shake-ups

Spanning pressure-cooker survival tales drawn from legendary theology all the way to installment follow-ups paired with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is shaping up as the most complex combined with strategic year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. major banners hold down the year with known properties, at the same time subscription platforms stack the fall with discovery plays paired with primordial unease. Meanwhile, independent banners is propelled by the tailwinds from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Since Halloween is the prized date, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are intentional, as a result 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium genre swings back

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s schedule lights the fuse with a risk-forward move: a contemporary Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. targeting mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Steered by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Initial heat flags it as potent.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s schedule launches the swan song inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re teams, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: nostalgic menace, trauma explicitly handled, and a cold supernatural calculus. This pass pushes higher, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, stretches the animatronic parade, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It hits in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Plays: No Budget, No Problem

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a close quarters body horror study featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is destined for a fall landing.

In the mix sits Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

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. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is canny scheduling. No bloated mythology. No continuity burden. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. 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. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, from Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

What to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror ascends again
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Season Ahead: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The approaching fear lineup: returning titles, new stories, alongside A Crowded Calendar tailored for nightmares

Dek: The current terror calendar builds right away with a January wave, following that spreads through the warm months, and running into the holiday stretch, fusing marquee clout, new concepts, and calculated counterprogramming. Studios with streamers are betting on lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and short-form initiatives that transform these pictures into all-audience topics.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The horror sector has grown into the most reliable lever in release strategies, a corner that can grow when it resonates and still limit the downside when it doesn’t. After 2023 demonstrated to leaders that modestly budgeted genre plays can own social chatter, the following year sustained momentum with signature-voice projects and sleeper breakouts. The head of steam rolled into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and elevated films highlighted there is capacity for many shades, from franchise continuations to non-IP projects that travel well. The end result for 2026 is a slate that feels more orchestrated than usual across the field, with strategic blocks, a spread of legacy names and original hooks, and a sharpened focus on exhibition windows that increase tail monetization on premium video on demand and home streaming.

Buyers contend the genre now performs as a utility player on the slate. Horror can debut on a wide range of weekends, furnish a tight logline for promo reels and vertical videos, and outpace with ticket buyers that arrive on previews Thursday and stick through the next pass if the picture delivers. On the heels of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 layout shows comfort in that setup. The year begins with a loaded January stretch, then primes spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a September to October window that carries into Halloween and into November. The gridline also shows the ongoing integration of indie distributors and digital platforms that can launch in limited release, create conversation, and scale up at the right moment.

An added macro current is franchise tending across interlocking continuities and veteran brands. The studios are not just greenlighting another installment. They are working to present lineage with a specialness, whether that is a graphic identity that broadcasts a tonal shift or a casting choice that connects a new entry to a initial period. At the in tandem, the directors behind the top original plays are celebrating in-camera technique, real effects and place-driven backdrops. That interplay delivers the 2026 slate a healthy mix of recognition and novelty, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two marquee pushes that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the heart, signaling it as both a lineage transfer and a rootsy character-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the directional approach conveys a classic-referencing mode without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Plan for a rollout driven by signature symbols, early character teases, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will go after wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick shifts to whatever owns trend lines that spring.

Universal has three differentiated plays. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is clean, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man implements an artificial companion that shifts into a lethal partner. The date positions it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s team likely to iterate on strange in-person beats and quick hits that hybridizes love and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots 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 dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a proper title to become an PR pop closer to the teaser. The timing gives great post to read the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele titles are presented as director events, with a teaser that reveals little and a next wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The pre-Halloween slot opens a lane to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has long shown that a tactile, makeup-driven method can feel big on a moderate cost. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror surge that leans hard into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, preserving a steady supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is billing as a reset 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 well-defined brief to serve both core fans and casuals. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign pieces around world-building, and monster craft, elements that can accelerate format premiums and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by careful craft and language, this time orbiting lycan myth. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is glowing.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Windowing plans in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s horror titles move to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a pacing that enhances both first-week urgency and trial spikes in the late-window. Prime Video stitches together library titles with worldwide entries and small theatrical windows when the data backs it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library pulls, using curated hubs, holiday hubs, and collection rows to extend momentum on overall cume. Netflix keeps options open about internal projects and festival deals, dating horror entries near their drops and positioning as event drops debuts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a dual-phase of limited theatrical footprints and prompt platform moves that translates talk to trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown a willingness to take on select projects with top-tier auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for retention when the genre conversation intensifies.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 lane with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clear: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, retooled for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the fall weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has proved effective for elevated genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption movies is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception encourages. Watch for 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 small theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subs.

Legacy titles versus originals

By volume, 2026 leans in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage cultural cachet. The concern, as ever, is diminishing returns. The preferred tactic is to pitch each entry as a new angle. Paramount is centering character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-inflected take from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and director-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the package is familiar enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night turnout.

Three-year comps clarify the strategy. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that honored streaming windows did not prevent a hybrid test from hitting when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror punched above its weight in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they rotate perspective and expand the canvas. 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 double feature plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, permits marketing to cross-link entries through character web and themes and to continue assets in field without hiatuses.

Production craft signals

The shop talk behind this year’s genre indicate a continued preference for real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that spotlights creep and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in long-lead features and department features before rolling out a teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta pivot that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature work and production design, which lend themselves to expo activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel necessary. Look for trailers that underscore pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that land in premium houses.

Calendar cadence

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on have a peek at these guys January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid macro-brand pushes. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the tonal variety carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Q1 into Q2 prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. 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.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-October slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a slow-reveal plan and limited pre-release reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift card usage.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s machine mate 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss struggle to survive on a remote island as the control balance turns and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to dread, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting scenario that plays with the fear of a child’s inconsistent read. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed and star-fronted haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that satirizes modern genre fads and true-crime obsessions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further extends again, with a different family tethered to long-buried horrors. Rating: pending. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A new start designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: to be announced. Production: advancing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 time-true diction and raw menace. Rating: TBA. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces frame this lineup. First, production that eased or re-slotted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and leaner 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, providing runway 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 compete across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 value-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 exploit those windows. 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, 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 Is Well Positioned

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand heft where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.