Primordial Evil Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across global platforms

This spine-tingling unearthly shockfest from narrative craftsman / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an prehistoric horror when unrelated individuals become instruments in a satanic ritual. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking depiction of living through and old world terror that will revolutionize the horror genre this cool-weather season. Visualized by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and atmospheric motion picture follows five unknowns who snap to sealed in a remote lodge under the sinister will of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a ancient religious nightmare. Anticipate to be drawn in by a motion picture display that fuses bone-deep fear with spiritual backstory, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a classic narrative in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is reversed when the beings no longer arise externally, but rather from their core. This illustrates the most primal dimension of the players. The result is a intense cognitive warzone where the events becomes a relentless struggle between heaven and hell.


In a forsaken outland, five souls find themselves caught under the possessive presence and infestation of a uncanny person. As the ensemble becomes incapacitated to deny her curse, isolated and tormented by unknowns beyond reason, they are cornered to battle their worst nightmares while the seconds brutally draws closer toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust surges and bonds disintegrate, pressuring each survivor to rethink their self and the foundation of liberty itself. The stakes intensify with every second, delivering a scare-fueled ride that intertwines ghostly evil with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to explore core terror, an spirit that predates humanity, operating within mental cracks, and confronting a power that peels away humanity when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was centered on something deeper than fear. She is innocent until the takeover begins, and that pivot is haunting because it is so visceral.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—giving households from coast to coast can witness this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its release of trailer #1, which has garnered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, making the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Do not miss this cinematic exploration of dread. Face *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to explore these terrifying truths about the mind.


For teasers, director cuts, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across online outlets and visit youngandcursed.com.





Modern horror’s tipping point: 2025 across markets U.S. Slate integrates biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, together with IP aftershocks

Moving from fight-to-live nightmare stories saturated with legendary theology as well as IP renewals together with pointed art-house angles, 2025 appears poised to be the richest plus deliberate year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio majors bookend the months using marquee IP, while OTT services pack the fall with unboxed visions plus ancient terrors. In parallel, the artisan tier is catching the backdraft of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, notably this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are methodical, hence 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige terror resurfaces

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s pipeline lights the fuse with a headline swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Booked into mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Under Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer wanes, the Warner lot bows the concluding entry from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re engages, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retro dread, trauma centered writing, and a cold supernatural calculus. Here the stakes rise, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The return delves further into myth, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It opens in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a body horror duet pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend with Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Shaped and helmed by 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 horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

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 a clever angle. No overweight mythology. No brand fatigue. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, led by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

What to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror ascends again
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Badges become bargaining chips
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Projection: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get 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.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The coming 2026 Horror Year Ahead: entries, Originals, in tandem with A jammed Calendar designed for frights

Dek: The upcoming horror season clusters from the jump with a January pile-up, thereafter rolls through the summer months, and continuing into the festive period, combining IP strength, new concepts, and shrewd offsets. Distributors with platforms are relying on mid-range economics, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-driven marketing that transform these films into culture-wide discussion.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror filmmaking has become the consistent counterweight in studio slates, a space that can grow when it connects and still hedge the liability when it does not. After 2023 reassured studio brass that lean-budget scare machines can lead social chatter, the following year maintained heat with visionary-driven titles and surprise hits. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and awards-minded projects demonstrated there is capacity for different modes, from continued chapters to original features that translate worldwide. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a run that presents tight coordination across the industry, with mapped-out bands, a harmony of familiar brands and fresh ideas, and a tightened commitment on cinema windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital rental and streaming.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now behaves like a swing piece on the distribution slate. Horror can arrive on nearly any frame, create a simple premise for previews and social clips, and outpace with audiences that line up on Thursday previews and hold through the follow-up frame if the feature works. Following a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 pattern shows comfort in that equation. The calendar opens with a loaded January band, then uses spring and early summer for contrast, while clearing room for a fall cadence that carries into holiday-adjacent weekends and into early November. The calendar also underscores the expanded integration of indie distributors and subscription services that can build gradually, generate chatter, and expand at the right moment.

A notable top-line trend is legacy care across ongoing universes and long-running brands. Studio teams are not just producing another return. They are seeking to position continuity with a occasion, whether that is a logo package that indicates a new vibe or a cast configuration that links a incoming chapter to a vintage era. At the very same time, the helmers behind the most anticipated originals are doubling down on in-camera technique, real effects and distinct locales. That blend offers 2026 a solid mix of known notes and unexpected turns, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount leads early with two headline titles that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the focus, setting it up as both a passing of the torch and a classic-mode character-centered film. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the authorial approach conveys a nostalgia-forward mode without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave stacked with legacy iconography, initial cast looks, and a rollout cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also resurrects 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 as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will emphasize. As a summer relief option, this one will seek wide buzz through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format making room for quick switches to whatever defines trend lines that spring.

Universal has three clear releases. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tidy, loss-driven, and high-concept: a grieving man brings home an algorithmic mate that shifts into a dangerous lover. The date locates it at the front of a busy month, with the marketing arm likely to renew strange in-person beats and short-form creative that blurs romance and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a branding reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the early tease. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His entries are marketed as marquee events, with a hinting teaser and a follow-up trailer set that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-month date allows Universal to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has shown that a raw, hands-on effects mix can feel premium on a disciplined budget. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror surge that emphasizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio mounts two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a bankable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is billing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both players and fresh viewers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build promo materials around environmental design, and monster design, elements that can stoke IMAX and PLF uptake and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror defined by immersive craft and dialect, this time circling werewolf lore. The distributor has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is positive.

Streaming windows and tactics

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on familiar rails. The Universal horror run window into copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a cadence that enhances both first-week urgency and sub growth in the later window. Prime Video pairs third-party pickups with global pickups and limited runs in theaters when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library pulls, using seasonal hubs, holiday hubs, and staff picks to keep attention on the horror cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about first-party entries and festival buys, scheduling horror entries closer to drop and elevating as drops drops with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and rapid platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a per-project basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to invest in select projects with prestige directors or A-list packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation intensifies.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 corridor with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is clean: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, updated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a standard theatrical run for the title, an positive signal for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has worked well for craft-driven horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using precision theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By volume, the 2026 slate favors the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The near-term solution is to pitch each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is centering character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and director-driven titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the deal build is grounded enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps frame the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that respected streaming windows did not prevent a day-and-date experiment from thriving when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror punched above its weight in premium large format. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and stretch the story. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot in tandem, lets marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to leave creative active without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The creative meetings behind this slate telegraph a continued tilt toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that foregrounds tone and tension rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta pivot that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will live or die on monster realization and design, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel must-have. Look for trailers that highlight razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that work in PLF.

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. 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 survival shocker 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 offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Late winter and spring load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the see here brand has previously landed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a pre-October slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited teasers that stress concept over spoilers.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can play the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s intelligent companion escalates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

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

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss try to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power inverts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to terror, built on Cronin’s practical craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 story that toys with the fear of a child’s shaky POV. Rating: not yet rated. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A genre lampoon that needles contemporary horror memes and true crime fixations. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. 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 ignites, with an overseas twist in tone and check over here setting. Rating: TBD. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a another family lashed to lingering terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 elemental fear. Rating: not yet rated. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three grounded forces organize this lineup. First, production that stalled or re-sequenced in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest shareable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will stack across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the target range. 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 sleeper-hit 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

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

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sound field, 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.

A Promising 2026

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand heft where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the frights sell the seats.