Ancient Malevolence returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, bowing Oct 2025 on leading streamers

One haunting unearthly scare-fest from cinematographer / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an prehistoric horror when unrelated individuals become vehicles in a supernatural ritual. Available this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing narrative of endurance and age-old darkness that will alter horror this scare season. Helmed by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and emotionally thick thriller follows five characters who wake up isolated in a cut-off house under the malignant manipulation of Kyra, a female lead inhabited by a ancient Old Testament spirit. Get ready to be shaken by a audio-visual venture that weaves together raw fear with timeless legends, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a iconic narrative in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is reimagined when the entities no longer form beyond the self, but rather inside their minds. This depicts the malevolent element of the victims. The result is a harrowing moral showdown where the drama becomes a brutal battle between good and evil.


In a barren terrain, five individuals find themselves contained under the ghastly effect and possession of a mysterious woman. As the characters becomes helpless to evade her rule, exiled and preyed upon by evils unimaginable, they are cornered to face their core terrors while the moments relentlessly pushes forward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease surges and connections break, compelling each character to reflect on their character and the notion of self-determination itself. The stakes mount with every beat, delivering a scare-fueled ride that merges supernatural terror with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to extract elemental fright, an curse that existed before mankind, emerging via emotional fractures, and wrestling with a power that questions who we are when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra needed manifesting something beneath mortal despair. She is insensitive until the takeover begins, and that flip is gut-wrenching because it is so internal.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering households around the globe can face this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its intro video, which has seen over notable views.


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


Do not miss this life-altering spiral into evil. Experience *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to uncover these chilling revelations about the soul.


For cast commentary, making-of footage, and reveals via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit our spooky domain.





Horror’s sea change: 2025 across markets U.S. release slate fuses legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, in parallel with Franchise Rumbles

Kicking off with last-stand terror saturated with mythic scripture and stretching into returning series paired with focused festival visions, 2025 is tracking to be the most variegated as well as carefully orchestrated year in recent memory.

Call it full, but it is also focused. top-tier distributors lock in tentpoles with known properties, simultaneously subscription platforms prime the fall with fresh voices set against ancestral chills. In the indie lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is riding the echoes from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, however this time, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are disciplined, accordingly 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige terror resurfaces

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 set the base, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal leads off the quarter with a bold swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a clear present-tense world. Steered by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. timed for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Guided by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer winds down, the Warner Bros. banner drops the final chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re engages, and those signature textures resurface: vintage toned fear, trauma as narrative engine, and a cold supernatural calculus. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, stretches the animatronic parade, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It drops in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Plays: No Budget, No Problem

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

In the mix sits Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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 reads as sharp positioning. No overinflated mythology. No sequel clutter. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

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

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

Emerging Currents

Old myth goes broad
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror returns
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.

SVOD originals harden up
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. 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 such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

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 coming 2026 terror slate: next chapters, original films, as well as A jammed Calendar geared toward Scares

Dek: The arriving terror cycle stacks immediately with a January bottleneck, before it spreads through the warm months, and carrying into the festive period, mixing IP strength, new concepts, and calculated counter-scheduling. Studios and streamers are betting on efficient budgets, cinema-first plans, and social-fueled campaigns that position the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror marketplace has established itself as the predictable release in studio lineups, a pillar that can grow when it resonates and still mitigate the losses when it underperforms. After 2023 signaled to strategy teams that efficiently budgeted fright engines can lead the zeitgeist, the following year held pace with director-led heat and surprise hits. The trend flowed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is a market for different modes, from franchise continuations to fresh IP that translate worldwide. The aggregate for 2026 is a roster that presents tight coordination across the industry, with obvious clusters, a spread of recognizable IP and original hooks, and a renewed eye on big-screen windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium digital rental and platforms.

Marketers add the space now operates like a fill-in ace on the calendar. Horror can arrive on open real estate, offer a grabby hook for ad units and TikTok spots, and overperform with patrons that lean in on Thursday nights and hold through the next weekend if the release hits. Exiting a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 setup underscores certainty in that equation. The calendar starts with a stacked January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for balance, while holding room for a September to October window that carries into the Halloween frame and into November. The program also includes the stronger partnership of indie distributors and digital platforms that can launch in limited release, fuel WOM, and scale up at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is brand curation across linked properties and established properties. The players are not just producing another chapter. They are seeking to position story carry-over with a specialness, whether that is a graphic identity that telegraphs a tonal shift or a casting move that threads a new entry to a vintage era. At the simultaneously, the creative leads behind the headline-grabbing originals are doubling down on practical craft, makeup and prosthetics and concrete locations. That alloy affords the 2026 slate a solid mix of comfort and invention, which is the formula for international play.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile bets that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the center, framing it as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-centered film. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a throwback-friendly angle without recycling the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Watch for a push anchored in brand visuals, first images of characters, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will stress. As a summer alternative, this one will seek wide buzz through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick turns to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three defined bets. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an artificial companion that evolves into a killer companion. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with Universal’s campaign likely to recreate viral uncanny stunts and short reels that mixes intimacy and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title reveal to become an PR pop closer to the early tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. The filmmaker’s films are branded as marquee events, with a hinting teaser and a subsequent trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The late-October frame offers Universal room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has proven that a raw, on-set effects led style can feel top-tier on a lean spend. Expect a splatter summer horror jolt that embraces global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio launches two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a evergreen supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony 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 restarts in what Sony is marketing as a new foundation 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 mission to serve both franchise faithful and first-timers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build artifacts around narrative world, and monster aesthetics, elements that can stoke format premiums and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on immersive craft and archaic language, this time set against lycan legends. The company has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform windowing in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s slate flow to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a structure that maximizes both launch urgency and subscriber lifts in the tail. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with worldwide buys and select theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library engagement, using curated hubs, holiday hubs, check over here and curated strips to sustain interest on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix originals and festival grabs, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and eventizing releases with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a paired of limited theatrical footprints and rapid platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a selective basis. The platform has indicated interest to invest in select projects with established auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation builds.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 pipeline with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is straightforward: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, upgraded for modern mix and grade. 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 flagged a big-screen first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday dates to expand. That positioning has proved effective for craft-driven horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Expect 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 hand in hand, using boutique theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Balance of brands and originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The risk, as ever, is diminishing returns. The pragmatic answer is to present each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is promising a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a continental coloration from a ascendant talent. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the team and cast is assuring enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night crowds.

The last three-year set make sense of the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that held distribution windows did not stop a day-date move from winning when the brand was sticky. In 2024, art-forward horror punched above its weight in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they change perspective and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, creates space for marketing to cross-link entries through character arcs and themes and to keep materials circulating without long gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind these films indicate a continued shift toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that highlights atmosphere and fear rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in deep-dive features and artisan spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that withholds plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta-horror reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which fit with convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that center precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that explode in larger rooms.

Annual flow

January is full. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tone spread carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Winter into spring build the summer base. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers no-compromise 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 cycled through PLF.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-October slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card spend.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genome. 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 heartbroken man’s synthetic partner turns into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 desolate island as the power balance of power swivels and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

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 renewed take that returns the monster to dread, anchored by Cronin’s practical effects and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal 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 domestic haunting setup that twists the fear of a child’s tricky perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed and A-list fronted eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that riffs on hot-button genre motifs and true-crime crazes. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming slated 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 surges, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further extends again, with a unlucky family entangled with long-buried horrors. 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: TBD. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in classic survival-horror tone over action fireworks. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBD. Production: in progress. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 bone-deep menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 and why now

Three hands-on forces frame this lineup. First, production that paused or recalendared in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and pared-down timelines. 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming drops. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

The slot calculus is real. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will jostle 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 make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first quiet 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined 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 materiality, acoustics, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is recognizable IP where it plays, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.