Mythic Evil Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising shocker, arriving Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

This bone-chilling metaphysical suspense film from dramatist / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an archaic force when guests become subjects in a malevolent trial. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking account of perseverance and mythic evil that will remodel the fear genre this season. Created by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and claustrophobic motion picture follows five young adults who awaken caught in a off-grid hideaway under the malignant sway of Kyra, a tormented girl overtaken by a prehistoric biblical demon. Anticipate to be immersed by a cinematic presentation that blends visceral dread with biblical origins, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a long-standing fixture in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is reimagined when the malevolences no longer develop from elsewhere, but rather inside them. This mirrors the haunting side of every character. The result is a enthralling psychological battle where the emotions becomes a perpetual struggle between moral forces.


In a forsaken terrain, five souls find themselves stuck under the malicious force and infestation of a elusive female figure. As the characters becomes unable to evade her command, cut off and chased by spirits unfathomable, they are driven to battle their darkest emotions while the timeline without pause edges forward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension amplifies and relationships shatter, forcing each survivor to question their personhood and the foundation of liberty itself. The threat mount with every breath, delivering a paranormal ride that integrates paranormal dread with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to tap into instinctual horror, an force beyond recorded history, influencing fragile psyche, and testing a entity that erodes the self when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra asked for exploring something outside normal anguish. She is ignorant until the haunting manifests, and that change is gut-wrenching because it is so internal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing households everywhere can dive into this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its original clip, which has racked up over 100,000 views.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, bringing the film to a worldwide audience.


Mark your calendar for this life-altering voyage through terror. Confront *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to uncover these spiritual awakenings about the mind.


For featurettes, extra content, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YACMovie across your favorite networks and visit the official digital haunt.





U.S. horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 season U.S. Slate braids together ancient-possession motifs, Indie Shockers, together with brand-name tremors

Across survival horror infused with ancient scripture all the way to IP renewals in concert with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated together with tactically planned year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. the big studios bookend the months with established lines, at the same time premium streamers flood the fall with new perspectives plus legend-coded dread. On another front, independent banners is catching the uplift from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, distinctly in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are calculated, and 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s schedule starts the year with a statement play: a refashioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. arriving mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Directed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner lot delivers the closing chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Despite a known recipe, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson returns, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: throwback unease, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This run ups the stakes, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It opens in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Firsts: No Budget, No Problem

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a body horror duet with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 canny scheduling. No heavy handed lore. No franchise baggage. 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.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

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. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, 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 debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, guided 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 clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Trends Worth Watching

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror returns
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Fall crush plus winter X factor

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The coming 2026 spook season: installments, Originals, alongside A Crowded Calendar optimized for frights

Dek The emerging genre calendar loads at the outset with a January cluster, from there unfolds through June and July, and deep into the winter holidays, weaving brand heft, new voices, and savvy counter-scheduling. Studios with streamers are leaning into cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and buzz-forward plans that frame horror entries into cross-demo moments.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has emerged as the most reliable counterweight in studio calendars, a category that can surge when it breaks through and still protect the drag when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year re-taught studio brass that efficiently budgeted shockers can own social chatter, 2024 extended the rally with buzzy auteur projects and word-of-mouth wins. The run moved into the 2025 frame, where reboots and festival-grade titles underscored there is a lane for a variety of tones, from returning installments to director-led originals that play globally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a programming that seems notably aligned across the industry, with intentional bunching, a combination of legacy names and first-time concepts, and a tightened emphasis on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on paid VOD and streaming.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now serves as a fill-in ace on the programming map. The genre can debut on almost any weekend, create a simple premise for ad units and shorts, and outperform with patrons that show up on opening previews and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the feature connects. Post a production delay era, the 2026 plan signals belief in that equation. The slate rolls out with a thick January lineup, then uses spring and early summer for contrast, while holding room for a autumn push that reaches into the Halloween corridor and into November. The arrangement also shows the continuing integration of specialized labels and streamers that can platform a title, grow buzz, and grow at the proper time.

An added macro current is IP cultivation across unified worlds and legacy franchises. Big banners are not just greenlighting another return. They are moving to present lineage with a headline quality, whether that is a graphic identity that flags a fresh attitude or a cast configuration that connects a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the visionaries behind the eagerly awaited originals are embracing material texture, special makeup and place-driven backdrops. That alloy provides the 2026 slate a smart balance of familiarity and discovery, which is how the films export.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount establishes early momentum with two prominent releases that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the front, framing it as both a relay and a origin-leaning relationship-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a classic-referencing campaign without recycling the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push anchored in signature symbols, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will spotlight. As a counterweight in summer, this one will go after general-audience talk through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick turns to whatever leads the discourse that spring.

Universal has three defined strategies. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is clean, tragic, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that grows into a murderous partner. The date sets it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s campaign likely to reprise odd public stunts and short reels that interweaves attachment and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a official title to become an PR pop closer to the debut look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. The filmmaker’s films are set up as marquee events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second trailer wave that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The spooky-season slot offers Universal room to take 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has demonstrated that a blood-soaked, hands-on effects aesthetic can feel prestige on a controlled budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that leans hard into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio lines up two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, sustaining a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has shifted dates 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 steps back in what the studio is billing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both fans and curious audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around narrative world, and creature work, elements that can fuel premium format interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in minute detail and period language, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is favorable.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s slate head to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a cadence that maximizes both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the downstream. Prime Video pairs licensed content with worldwide entries and limited cinema engagements when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library pulls, using editorial spots, holiday hubs, and curated rows to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival snaps, dating horror entries closer to launch and turning into events rollouts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a dual-phase of tailored theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has indicated interest to acquire select projects with recognized filmmakers or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is putting together 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 promise is uncomplicated: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, updated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-driven genre with wider appeal. 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 safe bet is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Do not be surprised by 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 hand in hand, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Brands and originals

By weight, 2026 tips toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit franchise value. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to pitch each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is underscoring core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a Francophone tone from a rising filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the assembly is steady enough to accelerate early sales and early previews.

The last three-year set frame the plan. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that maintained windows did not stop a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror punched above its weight in premium large format. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they alter lens and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, permits marketing to link the films through relationships and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued bias toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo 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 tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft features before rolling out a initial teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta reframe that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster aesthetics and world-building, which fit with booth activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that spotlight disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in big rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the palette of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Winter into spring seed summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil follows September 18, a early fall window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that put concept first.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and card redemption.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s AI companion becomes something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: mood-led 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 battle to survive on a rugged island as the power balance shifts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to fear, grounded in Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting tale that mediates the fear via a preteen’s volatile perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that targets current genre trends and true-crime manias. Rating: TBA. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 erupts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a fresh family linked to ancient dread. Rating: TBD. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recreate the franchise imp source from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-driven horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: to be announced. Production: continuing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 historical diction and primal menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces shape this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-slotted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and compressed schedules. 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 landings. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate meme-ready beats from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will cluster across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, 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 maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, aural design, and image-making 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is name recognition where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shocks sell the seats.