Primeval Horror Reawakens within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding supernatural thriller, rolling out October 2025 across global platforms

One haunting occult suspense story from scriptwriter / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an primeval fear when guests become subjects in a supernatural trial. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing saga of endurance and old world terror that will resculpt terror storytelling this scare season. Crafted by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and atmospheric suspense flick follows five strangers who are stirred ensnared in a wooded shack under the hostile manipulation of Kyra, a female lead occupied by a time-worn scriptural evil. Anticipate to be absorbed by a visual ride that weaves together primitive horror with mythic lore, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a historical fixture in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is redefined when the monsters no longer manifest from elsewhere, but rather from their core. This portrays the most sinister dimension of every character. The result is a bone-chilling psychological battle where the story becomes a soul-crushing push-pull between purity and corruption.


In a wilderness-stricken natural abyss, five individuals find themselves marooned under the fiendish presence and inhabitation of a unidentified apparition. As the companions becomes unresisting to withstand her influence, isolated and targeted by creatures mind-shattering, they are confronted to wrestle with their core terrors while the deathwatch harrowingly runs out toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear surges and partnerships break, demanding each survivor to scrutinize their values and the structure of free will itself. The hazard surge with every heartbeat, delivering a paranormal ride that harmonizes otherworldly panic with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to awaken elemental fright, an threat before modern man, feeding on psychological breaks, and questioning a darkness that questions who we are when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra required summoning something more primal than sorrow. She is innocent until the demon emerges, and that transition is gut-wrenching because it is so close.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering horror lovers around the globe can survive this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its release of trailer #1, which has collected over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, giving access to the movie to fans of fear everywhere.


Do not miss this heart-stopping descent into hell. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to witness these terrifying truths about the mind.


For exclusive trailers, extra content, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Facebook and TikTok and visit youngandcursed.com.





Horror’s sea change: 2025 domestic schedule weaves legend-infused possession, signature indie scares, in parallel with returning-series thunder

Moving from fight-to-live nightmare stories rooted in old testament echoes through to IP renewals paired with incisive indie visions, 2025 is coalescing into the most complex and calculated campaign year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. leading studios plant stakes across the year by way of signature titles, concurrently premium streamers crowd the fall with new voices set against ancestral chills. Across the art-house lane, indie storytellers is carried on the echoes of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, distinctly in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, therefore 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium genre swings back

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal Pictures leads off the quarter with a bold swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. targeting mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Guided by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. Pictures releases the last chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re engages, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: period tinged dread, trauma driven plotting, and a cold supernatural calculus. The stakes escalate here, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, stretches the animatronic parade, speaking to teens and older millennials. It lands in December, cornering year end horror.

Platform Plays: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. 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.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It reads as sharp positioning. No heavy handed lore. No canon weight. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. 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 film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Mythic currents go mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror swings back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

What’s Next: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The coming 2026 genre season: continuations, universe starters, plus A loaded Calendar Built For goosebumps

Dek The emerging scare slate packs immediately with a January cluster, subsequently spreads through summer corridors, and deep into the festive period, combining brand equity, original angles, and well-timed calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are relying on right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and buzz-forward plans that turn these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror has established itself as the bankable lever in studio lineups, a vertical that can grow when it clicks and still insulate the drag when it falls short. After the 2023 year re-taught studio brass that disciplined-budget shockers can steer the national conversation, 2024 held pace with visionary-driven titles and slow-burn breakouts. The run fed into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and critical darlings confirmed there is a market for different modes, from continued chapters to fresh IP that travel well. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a programming that feels more orchestrated than usual across studios, with purposeful groupings, a combination of legacy names and novel angles, and a reinvigorated priority on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on paid VOD and streaming.

Planners observe the genre now works like a flex slot on the rollout map. The genre can roll out on nearly any frame, supply a easy sell for promo reels and short-form placements, and overperform with crowds that show up on opening previews and keep coming through the follow-up frame if the feature lands. In the wake of a production delay era, the 2026 plan underscores conviction in that playbook. The slate commences with a front-loaded January lineup, then targets spring into early summer for contrast, while saving space for a fall run that flows toward holiday-adjacent weekends and into early November. The gridline also highlights the increasing integration of specialty arms and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and scale up at the timely point.

Another broad trend is brand management across linked properties and legacy IP. The companies are not just producing another next film. They are setting up continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a graphic identity that announces a fresh attitude or a lead change that links a fresh chapter to a early run. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the most watched originals are prioritizing hands-on technique, real effects and vivid settings. That combination hands the 2026 slate a solid mix of trust and discovery, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount establishes early momentum with two spotlight pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the lead, presenting it as both a passing of the torch and a rootsy character-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance conveys a throwback-friendly strategy without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Watch for a push driven by iconic art, character previews, and a rollout cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

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 in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a summer relief option, this one will generate wide appeal through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever leads horror talk that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, loss-driven, and big-hook: a grieving man implements an synthetic partner that grows into a killer companion. The date lines it up at the front of a front-loaded month, with the Universal machine likely to echo off-kilter promo beats and micro spots that melds longing and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an earned moment closer to the debut look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s releases are set up as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a next wave of trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The pre-Halloween slot allows Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has consistently shown that a in-your-face, physical-effects centered approach can feel elevated on a efficient spend. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror shock that emphasizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, continuing a consistent supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is calling a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both core fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot allows Sony to build assets around setting detail, and monster craft, elements that can fuel format premiums and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film his comment is here carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and textual fidelity, this time engaging werewolf myth. The label has already locked the day for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

Where the platforms fit in

Digital strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal titles shift to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ladder that amplifies both premiere heat and sub growth in the tail. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with international acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix originals and festival pickups, dating horror entries closer to drop and coalescing around go-lives with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a paired of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a per-project basis. The platform has signaled readiness to invest in select projects with award winners or star-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 pipeline with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is clear: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, reimagined for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the year-end corridor to widen. That positioning has paid off for auteur horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception supports. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using mini theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By volume, 2026 tilts in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on brand equity. The concern, as ever, is brand erosion. The near-term solution is to frame each entry as a new angle. Paramount is bringing forward character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a European tilt from a buzzed-about director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and visionary-led titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the deal build is comforting enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent comps make sense of the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not stop a day-date move from hitting when the brand was sticky. In 2024, precision craft horror hit big in premium screens. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot consecutively, lets marketing to bridge entries through relationships and themes and to sustain campaign assets without extended gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The shop talk behind 2026 horror suggest a continued shift toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that foregrounds creep and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft features before rolling out a mood teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta reframe that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature work and production design, which work nicely for booth activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in big rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is heavy. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tonal variety gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late Q1 and spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a opaque tease strategy and limited information drops that put concept first.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s intelligent companion turns into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: tone-first game 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 difficult boss struggle to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic inverts 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, driven by Cronin’s tactile craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting narrative that threads the dread through a little one’s uneven subjective view. Rating: TBA. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and headline-actor led eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that lampoons in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBD. Production: production booked 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: to be announced. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a another family linked to returning horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on pure survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBA. Production: in progress. 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 era-accurate language and bone-deep menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 and why now

Three hands-on forces inform this lineup. First, production that paused or shuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and tighter 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on social-ready stingers from test screenings, managed scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

There is also the slotting calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of 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 come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, 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 stack through the year, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to 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, acoustics, 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.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is franchise muscle where it helps, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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, roll out exact trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.