Antediluvian Evil emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked shocker, streaming October 2025 across global platforms

A blood-curdling otherworldly suspense story from storyteller / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an prehistoric horror when unfamiliar people become conduits in a malevolent contest. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful chronicle of struggle and forgotten curse that will redefine scare flicks this cool-weather season. Brought to life by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and immersive suspense flick follows five strangers who awaken locked in a far-off cottage under the malevolent will of Kyra, a female presence haunted by a millennia-old scriptural evil. Brace yourself to be ensnared by a big screen outing that harmonizes deep-seated panic with mystical narratives, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a iconic concept in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is reversed when the fiends no longer emerge from an outside force, but rather from deep inside. This embodies the most sinister facet of the group. The result is a gripping psychological battle where the events becomes a unyielding face-off between innocence and sin.


In a isolated landscape, five figures find themselves cornered under the evil influence and domination of a uncanny entity. As the companions becomes incapable to combat her control, severed and stalked by entities ungraspable, they are driven to battle their raw vulnerabilities while the countdown unforgivingly ticks onward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear rises and relationships splinter, driving each participant to reconsider their personhood and the foundation of autonomy itself. The risk magnify with every heartbeat, delivering a chilling narrative that connects otherworldly suspense with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to evoke core terror, an spirit beyond time, embedding itself in inner turmoil, and highlighting a will that dismantles free will when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant channeling something far beyond human desperation. She is insensitive until the control shifts, and that flip is gut-wrenching because it is so private.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure watchers internationally can experience this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its first trailer, which has pulled in over a viral response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, extending the thrill to thrill-seekers globally.


Do not miss this heart-stopping spiral into evil. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to confront these evil-rooted truths about the psyche.


For featurettes, director cuts, and alerts from those who lived it, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across media channels and visit the movie portal.





Modern horror’s pivotal crossroads: the 2025 season U.S. calendar braids together legend-infused possession, signature indie scares, set against tentpole growls

Kicking off with life-or-death fear infused with primordial scripture and including returning series as well as cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is tracking to be the most complex and strategic year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio powerhouses set cornerstones with franchise anchors, concurrently digital services crowd the fall with new perspectives and ancient terrors. Across the art-house lane, the artisan tier is fueled by the echoes from a record 2024 festival run. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are exacting, thus 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal leads off the quarter with a big gambit: a contemporary Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a sharp contemporary setting. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Slated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

By late summer, the Warner lot bows the concluding entry inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson returns, and the memorable motifs return: nostalgic menace, trauma as theme, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The follow up digs further into canon, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It bows in December, securing the winter cap.

Streamer Exclusives: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece 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.

Playing chamber scale is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story led by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with 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.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Authored 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No overweight mythology. No sequel clutter. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Brands: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Signals and Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror retakes ground
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

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 2026 fright calendar year ahead: returning titles, universe starters, alongside A stacked Calendar Built For screams

Dek The brand-new horror season crowds early with a January logjam, subsequently flows through the warm months, and continuing into the holidays, weaving IP strength, original angles, and savvy counterprogramming. Major distributors and platforms are focusing on lean spends, box-office-first windows, and social-fueled campaigns that frame the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

The field has grown into the dependable release in annual schedules, a segment that can scale when it performs and still buffer the floor when it falls short. After the 2023 year demonstrated to buyers that lean-budget genre plays can steer the discourse, the following year maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The energy pushed into 2025, where re-entries and critical darlings signaled there is a lane for a variety of tones, from brand follow-ups to fresh IP that export nicely. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a roster that feels more orchestrated than usual across studios, with defined corridors, a mix of familiar brands and original hooks, and a recommitted attention on big-screen windows that drive downstream revenue on PVOD and home streaming.

Planners observe the horror lane now serves as a fill-in ace on the slate. The genre can bow on almost any weekend, create a simple premise for ad units and social clips, and outstrip with moviegoers that lean in on preview nights and sustain through the sophomore frame if the film connects. Post a work stoppage lag, the 2026 rhythm shows assurance in that engine. The calendar commences with a busy January stretch, then primes spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while saving space for a autumn stretch that pushes into the Halloween corridor and into November. The gridline also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and digital platforms that can develop over weeks, spark evangelism, and grow at the optimal moment.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across shared IP webs and long-running brands. The players are not just rolling another next film. They are shaping as threaded continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a refreshed voice or a lead change that bridges a next film to a classic era. At the very same time, the writer-directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are returning to real-world builds, makeup and prosthetics and vivid settings. That blend offers the 2026 slate a healthy mix of recognition and newness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

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

Paramount fires first with two big-ticket projects that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the center, presenting it as both a lineage transfer and a heritage-centered character study. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a classic-referencing mode without looping the last two entries’ sibling arc. Count on a promo wave fueled by franchise iconography, character spotlights, and a staggered trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will feature. As a summer relief option, this one will drive broad awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick adjustments to whatever leads genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three separate releases. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, loss-driven, and high-concept: a grieving man purchases an intelligent companion that unfolds into a dangerous lover. The date puts it at the front of a thick month, with the Universal machine likely to replay strange in-person beats and snackable content that threads love and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title reveal to become an event moment closer to the initial tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. His entries are framed as creative events, with a minimalist tease and a later creative that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-October frame gives Universal room to saturate 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has shown that a tactile, physical-effects centered mix can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror shot that centers global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, carrying a reliable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is positioning as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both loyalists and novices. The fall slot provides the studio time to build artifacts around canon, and monster design, elements that can fuel format premiums and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by careful craft and period speech, this time engaging werewolf myth. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is glowing.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate window into copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a sequence that elevates both launch urgency and sign-up momentum in the downstream. Prime Video will mix licensed content with worldwide buys and small theatrical windows when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in catalog engagement, using editorial spots, genre hubs, and editorial rows to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix keeps options open about originals and festival acquisitions, slotting horror entries closer to drop and making event-like launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses 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 relying on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with name filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation intensifies.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 lane with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is uncomplicated: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, elevated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a theatrical-first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the October weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, guiding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday slot to go wider. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-driven genre with crossover ambitions. 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 safe bet is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception prompts. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using limited theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchises versus originals

By weight, 2026 is weighted toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on brand equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is diminishing returns. The workable fix is to brand each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is leading with character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-accented approach from a emerging director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned 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 Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the cast-creatives package is recognizable enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years frame the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not deter a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror hit big in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they change perspective and scale the storytelling. 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 double feature plan, with chapters shot consecutively, creates space for marketing to connect the chapters through relationships and themes and to keep assets in-market without pause points.

How the look and feel evolve

The creative meetings behind these films telegraph a continued shift toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that foregrounds unease and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and department features before rolling out a preview that withholds plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and sparks shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta-horror reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster aesthetics and world-building, which align with expo activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel must-have. Look for trailers that foreground surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that work in PLF.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is heavy. 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 larger brand plays. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the spread of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Q1 into Q2 load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil follows September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited teasers that favor idea over plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and holiday card usage.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s synthetic partner evolves into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: aura-driven 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 unyielding boss push to survive on a cut-off island as the control balance swivels and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to horror, rooted in Cronin’s practical craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting scenario that toys with the horror of a child’s unreliable senses. Rating: rating pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly 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 parody reboot that satirizes in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fixations. Rating: pending. Production: lensing scheduled 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: pending. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a young family bound to past horrors. Rating: pending. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: pending. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on classic survival-horror tone over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBA. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: to be announced. Production: in progress. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and ancient menace. Rating: to be announced. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces frame this lineup. First, production that stalled or re-sequenced in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming placements. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, managed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or position get redirected here as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where lean-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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, 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 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 stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, acoustics, and visuals 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 Looks Exciting

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand equity where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.