Antediluvian Evil Returns within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding horror thriller, rolling out October 2025 on major platforms

A haunting ghostly suspense film from author / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an archaic curse when unfamiliar people become vehicles in a demonic experiment. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing depiction of overcoming and primordial malevolence that will reshape the horror genre this autumn. Helmed by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and immersive thriller follows five individuals who arise ensnared in a off-grid hideaway under the sinister power of Kyra, a young woman overtaken by a two-thousand-year-old sacred-era entity. Prepare to be captivated by a filmic experience that unites deep-seated panic with timeless legends, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a time-honored tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reversed when the beings no longer descend from a different plane, but rather from their core. This suggests the darkest facet of the group. The result is a riveting spiritual tug-of-war where the plotline becomes a soul-crushing confrontation between good and evil.


In a remote woodland, five characters find themselves caught under the malicious control and control of a elusive female figure. As the ensemble becomes incapable to withstand her will, disconnected and stalked by powers ungraspable, they are compelled to stand before their worst nightmares while the moments ruthlessly ticks toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion mounts and bonds break, prompting each character to doubt their self and the concept of volition itself. The consequences climb with every tick, delivering a terror ride that fuses paranormal dread with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to evoke ancestral fear, an curse born of forgotten ages, channeling itself through human fragility, and dealing with a power that strips down our being when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra demanded embodying something beyond human emotion. She is clueless until the demon emerges, and that turn is deeply unsettling because it is so deep.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for digital release beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—offering viewers internationally can enjoy this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first trailer, which has collected over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, taking the terror to global fright lovers.


Be sure to catch this mind-warping fall into madness. Face *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to explore these chilling revelations about human nature.


For sneak peeks, on-set glimpses, and press updates from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit our spooky domain.





Modern horror’s watershed moment: 2025 for genre fans U.S. calendar blends ancient-possession motifs, festival-born jolts, plus franchise surges

Running from survival horror suffused with scriptural legend and onward to installment follow-ups alongside incisive indie visions, 2025 is coalescing into the most textured in tandem with deliberate year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. leading studios lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, simultaneously subscription platforms pack the fall with discovery plays set against legend-coded dread. Across the art-house lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is catching the afterglow of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, notably this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are methodical, therefore 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige terror resurfaces

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

Universal’s distribution arm begins the calendar with a headline swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a clear present-tense world. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. timed for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Guided by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer eases, the Warner Bros. banner launches the swan song within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. 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 engages, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retro dread, trauma explicitly handled, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This time the stakes climb, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It lands in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Modest spend, serious shock

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a room scale body horror descent featuring Alison Brie opposite 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 plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is virtually assured for fall.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside 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.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. From writer director 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. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No overweight mythology. No canon weight. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festivals as Springboards

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

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, from Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Signals and Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror swings back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Big screen is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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 will have to fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 scare year to come: brand plays, universe starters, together with A packed Calendar tailored for chills

Dek The incoming terror cycle builds from the jump with a January logjam, subsequently stretches through June and July, and pushing into the year-end corridor, weaving franchise firepower, original angles, and calculated calendar placement. Studio marketers and platforms are focusing on cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and buzz-forward plans that turn these films into cross-demo moments.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror marketplace has proven to be the bankable tool in studio slates, a pillar that can lift when it lands and still protect the liability when it misses. After the 2023 year demonstrated to executives that efficiently budgeted shockers can galvanize pop culture, the following year held pace with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The tailwind moved into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers signaled there is room for different modes, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that resonate abroad. The sum for 2026 is a grid that shows rare alignment across companies, with obvious clusters, a blend of familiar brands and new packages, and a tightened stance on exhibition windows that feed downstream value on PVOD and home streaming.

Planners observe the horror lane now serves as a utility player on the rollout map. Horror can premiere on many corridors, deliver a quick sell for marketing and social clips, and lead with patrons that show up on previews Thursday and hold through the next pass if the movie hits. Coming out of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 pattern telegraphs comfort in that dynamic. The year gets underway with a heavy January window, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a fall run that pushes into the Halloween corridor and beyond. The schedule also reflects the ongoing integration of boutique distributors and platforms that can platform a title, build word of mouth, and expand at the right moment.

A parallel macro theme is legacy care across unified worlds and established properties. Studios are not just mounting another follow-up. They are seeking to position brand continuity with a specialness, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a recalibrated tone or a casting move that binds a new installment to a vintage era. At the in tandem, the visionaries behind the marquee originals are doubling down on in-camera technique, in-camera effects and site-specific worlds. That interplay hands 2026 a solid mix of brand comfort and surprise, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount plants an early flag with two marquee bets that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the spine, steering it as both a succession moment and a rootsy relationship-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a heritage-honoring campaign without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Expect a marketing push driven by classic imagery, intro reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites 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 creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counter-slot, this one will build general-audience talk through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format allowing quick updates to whatever shapes the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three differentiated releases. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is elegant, melancholic, and high-concept: a grieving man purchases an virtual partner that becomes a lethal partner. The date lines it up at the front of a packed window, with the marketing arm likely to iterate on creepy live activations and bite-size content that threads romance and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a branding reveal to become an headline beat closer to the debut look. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His entries are presented as event films, with a concept-forward tease and a second wave of trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The pre-Halloween slot gives the studio room to maximize 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has consistently shown that a gnarly, practical-effects forward method can feel cinematic on a tight budget. Look for a gore-forward summer horror charge that leans hard into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is framing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both loyalists and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build promo materials around universe detail, and practical creature work, elements that can stoke premium screens and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, weblink pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror defined by historical precision and linguistic texture, this time focused on werewolf legend. The imprint has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is warm.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre entries head to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a tiered path that enhances both premiere heat and subscription bumps in the later window. Prime Video balances outside acquisitions with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in archive usage, using featured rows, fright rows, and curated strips to stretch the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps flexible about originals and festival buys, securing horror entries toward the drop and making event-like launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a hybrid of focused cinema runs and quick platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a discrete basis. The platform has indicated interest to invest in select projects with established auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for sustained usage when the genre conversation swells.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 corridor with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is no-nonsense: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, reimagined for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a cinema-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday slot to increase reach. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-first horror with wider appeal. 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 solid projection is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception encourages. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using limited runs to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Brands and originals

By volume, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap cultural cachet. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The standing approach is to package each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is bringing forward character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-accented approach from a buzzed-about director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and director-driven titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the assembly is known enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years frame the model. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept streaming intact did not hamper a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror outperformed in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga proved again 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 proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters lensed back-to-back, allows marketing to relate entries through protagonists and motifs and to continue assets in field without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The shop talk behind the upcoming entries hint at a continued turn toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that leans on tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in deep-dive features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for red-band excess, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta recalibration that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature execution and sets, which work nicely for expo activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that center fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is crowded. Universal’s 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 quiet contrast amid marquee brands. The month winds down 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 serious, but the range of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late winter and spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited asset reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s virtual companion evolves into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her abrasive boss struggle to survive on a far-flung island as the chain of command reverses and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to nightmare, based on Cronin’s hands-on craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 tale that filters its scares through a minor’s uncertain internal vantage. Rating: rating pending. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

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 spoof revival that skewers contemporary horror memes and true crime fervors. Rating: TBD. Production: shoot planned for 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 transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household entangled with past horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A reboot designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-first horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBA. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 primal menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three execution-level forces drive this lineup. First, production that downshifted or migrated in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on clippable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where lower and 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 capitalize on those pockets. 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. 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundscape, 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

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand equity where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.