Antediluvian Terror stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror thriller, premiering October 2025 across premium platforms

This unnerving mystic fright fest from author / director Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an primordial malevolence when newcomers become subjects in a satanic ceremony. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking narrative of struggle and mythic evil that will reconstruct scare flicks this harvest season. Guided by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and emotionally thick cinema piece follows five unknowns who wake up stranded in a far-off house under the sinister manipulation of Kyra, a cursed figure inhabited by a timeless Old Testament spirit. Prepare to be immersed by a cinematic adventure that integrates bodily fright with timeless legends, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a historical fixture in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is twisted when the fiends no longer originate from a different plane, but rather inside them. This represents the malevolent corner of the victims. The result is a edge-of-seat spiritual tug-of-war where the intensity becomes a merciless battle between righteousness and malevolence.


In a unforgiving woodland, five souls find themselves sealed under the unholy aura and inhabitation of a uncanny woman. As the ensemble becomes submissive to combat her command, exiled and chased by evils unimaginable, they are required to encounter their raw vulnerabilities while the seconds without pause ticks toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety builds and connections dissolve, compelling each survivor to scrutinize their identity and the structure of free will itself. The stakes climb with every instant, delivering a chilling narrative that marries ghostly evil with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to extract basic terror, an spirit from ancient eras, manifesting in emotional vulnerability, and dealing with a will that challenges autonomy when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra demanded embodying something beyond human emotion. She is in denial until the haunting manifests, and that metamorphosis is emotionally raw because it is so unshielded.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—giving horror lovers from coast to coast can face this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its release of trailer #1, which has seen over 100K plays.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, exporting the fear to viewers around the world.


Tune in for this mind-warping trip into the unknown. Confront *Young & Cursed* this launch day to acknowledge these unholy truths about existence.


For featurettes, filmmaker commentary, and press updates via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursed across online outlets and visit youngandcursed.com.





U.S. horror’s decisive shift: 2025 domestic schedule integrates myth-forward possession, microbudget gut-punches, set against series shake-ups

Spanning grit-forward survival fare drawn from ancient scripture and stretching into franchise returns in concert with keen independent perspectives, 2025 appears poised to be the most complex and deliberate year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. studio majors set cornerstones with familiar IP, simultaneously SVOD players flood the fall with new voices paired with ancient terrors. On the festival side, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the carry from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, though in this cycle, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are intentional, accordingly 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are assertive. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s distribution arm opens the year with a statement play: a reconceived Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in an immediate now. From director Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. dated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer wanes, Warner’s schedule drops the final chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re boards, and the tone that worked before is intact: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The stakes escalate here, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. 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, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Firsts: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a sealed box body horror arc anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed 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 dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. 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.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No overweight mythology. No franchise baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy IP: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

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. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, 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 clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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 dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror reemerges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forward View: Fall saturation and a winter joker

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 scrap for air. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The next Horror cycle: follow-ups, universe starters, and also A brimming Calendar geared toward screams

Dek The upcoming genre season crowds early with a January traffic jam, following that unfolds through June and July, and running into the late-year period, blending brand equity, novel approaches, and well-timed calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are betting on smart costs, box-office-first windows, and social-driven marketing that turn these films into mainstream chatter.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The field has turned into the steady release in annual schedules, a segment that can scale when it performs and still cushion the exposure when it stumbles. After 2023 reassured decision-makers that low-to-mid budget pictures can lead social chatter, the following year held pace with filmmaker-forward plays and stealth successes. The trend carried into 2025, where re-entries and festival-grade titles showed there is appetite for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a programming that reads highly synchronized across studios, with mapped-out bands, a balance of known properties and new concepts, and a refocused strategy on box-office windows that power the aftermarket on premium video on demand and platforms.

Studio leaders note the space now operates like a utility player on the distribution slate. The genre can bow on most weekends, deliver a quick sell for ad units and short-form placements, and punch above weight with fans that arrive on opening previews and stay strong through the subsequent weekend if the film pays off. After a production delay era, the 2026 plan demonstrates belief in that logic. The year commences with a crowded January schedule, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while carving room for a late-year stretch that stretches into the Halloween frame and into early November. The grid also features the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and SVOD players that can build gradually, stoke social talk, and roll out at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across shared universes and veteran brands. Major shops are not just turning out another continuation. They are moving to present story carry-over with a must-see charge, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that bridges a new entry to a first wave. At the very same time, the auteurs behind the headline-grabbing originals are celebrating physical effects work, special makeup and place-driven backdrops. That fusion affords the 2026 slate a smart balance of familiarity and discovery, which is why the genre exports well.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount establishes early momentum with two front-of-slate projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the spine, steering it as both a succession moment and a DNA-forward character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a memory-charged campaign without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Look for a marketing run stacked with recognizable motifs, early character teases, and a rollout cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will play up. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will go after broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever defines the discourse that spring.

Universal has three discrete plays. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is efficient, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man purchases an machine companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with Universal’s marketing likely to revisit eerie street stunts and short reels that blurs longing and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a official title to become an attention spike closer to the first trailer. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s work are positioned as event films, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The late-month date gives the studio room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has demonstrated that a gnarly, physical-effects centered execution can feel high-value on a moderate cost. Expect a splatter summer horror shock that spotlights overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio places two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, extending a evergreen supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is calling a new foundation 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 focus to serve both core fans and new audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around narrative world, and creature effects, elements that can lift format premiums and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by meticulous craft and period speech, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus Features has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is warm.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal titles move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a sequence that optimizes both debut momentum and platform bumps in the later phase. Prime Video balances acquired titles with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in back-catalog play, using well-timed internal promotions, October hubs, and featured rows to extend momentum on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps flexible about Netflix films and festival wins, securing horror entries toward the drop and positioning as event drops releases with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a paired of tailored theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a selective basis. The platform has been willing to secure select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 lane with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is straightforward: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the fall weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has worked well for craft-driven horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception encourages. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using targeted theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their user base.

Known brands versus new stories

By weight, 2026 skews toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The watch-out, as ever, is fatigue. The workable fix is to brand each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is emphasizing character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a Francophone tone from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel get redirected here McAdams in a stranded survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the packaging is grounded enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday previews.

Recent comps contextualize the model. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that honored streaming windows did not stop a day-date try from performing when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, permits marketing to relate entries through relationships and themes and to keep assets alive without hiatuses.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind the 2026 slate hint at a continued preference for hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-true language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in trade spotlights and artisan spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature design and production design, which play well in convention floor stunts and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that work in PLF.

How the year maps out

January is stacked. 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 big-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the menu of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Early-year through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited teasers that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s intelligent companion evolves into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

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 be swallowed by a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her abrasive boss claw to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power turns and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to menace, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 piece that filters its scares through a young child’s unreliable point of view. Rating: TBA. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes present-day genre chatter and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 global twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a unlucky family tethered to returning horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: pending. Production: underway. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and ancient menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three practical forces inform this lineup. First, production that decelerated or migrated in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage shareable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. 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 leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

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 deep PLF penetration 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 disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sonics, 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand heft where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of 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, cut crisp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the gasps sell the seats.