Mythic Terror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across top digital platforms

An hair-raising otherworldly horror tale from dramatist / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an long-buried terror when unfamiliar people become victims in a dark ordeal. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a intense tale of continuance and archaic horror that will alter horror this harvest season. Crafted by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and claustrophobic story follows five characters who arise stranded in a hidden lodge under the unfriendly dominion of Kyra, a troubled woman consumed by a prehistoric biblical demon. Steel yourself to be hooked by a theatrical spectacle that harmonizes visceral dread with spiritual backstory, arriving on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a historical foundation in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is reversed when the beings no longer appear from elsewhere, but rather internally. This represents the darkest element of each of them. The result is a edge-of-seat inner struggle where the suspense becomes a merciless contest between light and darkness.


In a bleak backcountry, five teens find themselves sealed under the fiendish control and overtake of a secretive person. As the ensemble becomes unresisting to fight her power, stranded and tracked by creatures beyond comprehension, they are required to confront their core terrors while the seconds ruthlessly runs out toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension surges and associations crack, urging each individual to question their character and the philosophy of personal agency itself. The consequences mount with every tick, delivering a cinematic nightmare that blends occult fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to evoke pure dread, an darkness that existed before mankind, influencing soul-level flaws, and questioning a curse that dismantles free will when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra meant evoking something beyond human emotion. She is blind until the entity awakens, and that pivot is soul-crushing because it is so visceral.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that fans anywhere can experience this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has earned over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, taking the terror to global fright lovers.


Make sure to see this cinematic descent into darkness. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to survive these evil-rooted truths about human nature.


For previews, making-of footage, and announcements from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across platforms and visit youngandcursed.com.





American horror’s Turning Point: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule interlaces ancient-possession motifs, art-house nightmares, in parallel with legacy-brand quakes

From pressure-cooker survival tales suffused with near-Eastern lore to IP renewals together with acutely observed indies, 2025 is emerging as the most textured paired with strategic year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Top studios stabilize the year using marquee IP, as premium streamers crowd the fall with debut heat plus ancestral chills. In parallel, indie storytellers is surfing the afterglow of 2024’s record festival wave. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, yet in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are intentional, as a result 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: High-craft horror returns

The majors are assertive. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s distribution arm begins the calendar with a bold swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, within a sleek contemporary canvas. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. targeting mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Steered by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early reactions hint at fangs.

By late summer, the Warner lot sets loose the finale inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The stakes escalate here, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, reaching teens and game grownups. It hits in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters lean on names and sequels, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror chamber piece featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn with Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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 an astute call. No bloated mythology. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, steered by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror returns
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear 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 goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The new fright release year: Sequels, original films, and also A packed Calendar engineered for Scares

Dek: The upcoming horror calendar crams at the outset with a January traffic jam, from there stretches through midyear, and carrying into the year-end corridor, braiding marquee clout, new voices, and smart alternatives. Studio marketers and platforms are prioritizing responsible budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and viral-minded pushes that position horror entries into cross-demo moments.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The field has emerged as the most reliable move in distribution calendars, a genre that can lift when it lands and still limit the floor when it does not. After 2023 reassured greenlighters that modestly budgeted fright engines can dominate pop culture, the following year maintained heat with visionary-driven titles and quiet over-performers. The upswing fed into the 2025 frame, where returns and premium-leaning entries highlighted there is room for different modes, from legacy continuations to one-and-done originals that carry overseas. The upshot for 2026 is a roster that looks unusually coordinated across distributors, with intentional bunching, a harmony of legacy names and novel angles, and a refocused emphasis on exclusive windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and streaming.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now functions as a fill-in ace on the slate. The genre can debut on almost any weekend, create a clear pitch for promo reels and shorts, and over-index with patrons that show up on opening previews and keep coming through the follow-up frame if the feature works. In the wake of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 configuration demonstrates conviction in that approach. The calendar commences with a crowded January run, then primes spring and early summer for alternate plays, while making space for a October build that flows toward the Halloween corridor and into November. The arrangement also illustrates the continuing integration of specialty distributors and streamers that can platform a title, ignite recommendations, and roll out at the precise moment.

A companion trend is franchise tending across connected story worlds and legacy franchises. Big banners are not just greenlighting another continuation. They are moving to present lineage with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that signals a refreshed voice or a casting move that anchors a fresh chapter to a heyday. At the same time, the creative teams behind the marquee originals are doubling down on in-camera technique, special makeup and location-forward worlds. That fusion affords the 2026 slate a vital pairing of brand comfort and surprise, which is how the genre sells abroad.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount opens strong with two big-ticket entries that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the center, framing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a foundation-forward character-centered film. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the narrative stance suggests a legacy-leaning approach without covering again the last two entries’ family thread. Anticipate a campaign built on iconic art, character spotlights, and a tiered teaser plan timed to late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will stress. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will drive large awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick shifts to whatever drives the social talk that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is straightforward, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that becomes a dangerous lover. The date slots it at the front of a stacked January, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on creepy live activations and short-cut promos that threads longing and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under placeholder labels 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 PR pop closer to the early tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele projects are positioned as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a next wave of trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to dominate 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, works 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 blood-soaked, practical-effects forward style can feel elevated on a controlled budget. Look for a splatter summer horror charge that centers global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio deploys two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, sustaining a trusty supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is framing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both longtime followers and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around canon, and creature work, elements that can stoke PLF interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on rigorous craft and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is favorable.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal titles window into copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a cadence that amplifies both launch urgency and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video pairs licensed films with global originals and limited cinema engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library curation, using timely promos, October hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix keeps optionality about own-slate titles and festival deals, confirming horror entries toward the drop and coalescing around releases with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a one-two of selective theatrical runs and speedy platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation builds.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 sequence with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is straightforward: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, 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 standard theatrical run for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas corridor to increase reach. That positioning has proved effective for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception warrants. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited runs to ignite evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchise entries versus originals

By share, the 2026 slate favors the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on household recognition. The challenge, as ever, is brand erosion. The go-to fix is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is spotlighting character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-inflected take from a hot helmer. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into my company a island survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the team and cast is assuring enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Three-year comps announce the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept clean windows did not deter a hybrid test from paying off when the brand was potent. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror over-performed in PLF. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they change perspective and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, enables marketing to connect the chapters through cast and motif and to maintain a flow of assets without extended gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The director conversations behind the 2026 slate suggest a continued emphasis on tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates mood and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature work and production design, which are ideal for booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel definitive. Look for trailers that underscore precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that shine in top rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is full. Universal’s 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 somber counterpoint amid heavier IP. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the palette of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth holds.

Pre-summer months build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now nurtures 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 lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

End of summer through fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a slow-reveal plan and limited information drops that center concept over reveals.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s virtual companion evolves into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 work to survive on a far-flung island as the control balance tilts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to dread, based on Cronin’s tactile craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting story that channels the fear through a minor’s volatile perspective. Rating: to be announced. Production: finished. 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 rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A spoof revival that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fervors. Rating: undetermined. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 bursts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further extends again, with a young family lashed to old terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A fresh restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: moving forward. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 elemental dread. Rating: pending. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces shape this lineup. First, production that decelerated or reshuffled in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly 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, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest clippable moments from test screenings, precision scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 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 work 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, 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 beat and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, aural design, and camera work 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

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is recognizable IP where it plays, distinct vision where it matters, 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shocks sell the seats.