Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across leading streamers

This terrifying unearthly fright fest from author / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an mythic horror when passersby become subjects in a diabolical game. Dropping on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish depiction of continuance and forgotten curse that will revamp genre cinema this cool-weather season. Helmed by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and claustrophobic film follows five individuals who snap to caught in a cut-off shack under the malignant manipulation of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a ancient ancient fiend. Get ready to be gripped by a screen-based outing that combines gut-punch terror with spiritual backstory, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a time-honored tradition in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is twisted when the demons no longer descend from a different plane, but rather deep within. This illustrates the most primal side of the cast. The result is a gripping internal warfare where the tension becomes a unforgiving clash between heaven and hell.


In a remote landscape, five friends find themselves sealed under the possessive aura and spiritual invasion of a unidentified apparition. As the ensemble becomes paralyzed to escape her curse, stranded and targeted by presences beyond reason, they are confronted to endure their deepest fears while the time ruthlessly ticks toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia builds and connections disintegrate, pushing each cast member to evaluate their personhood and the notion of conscious will itself. The cost rise with every heartbeat, delivering a nightmarish journey that weaves together supernatural terror with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to dig into core terror, an evil from prehistory, embedding itself in emotional vulnerability, and questioning a spirit that questions who we are when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was about accessing something rooted in terror. She is clueless until the spirit seizes her, and that metamorphosis is harrowing because it is so private.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing horror lovers anywhere can dive into this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first trailer, which has been viewed over 100,000 views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, presenting the nightmare to viewers around the world.


Mark your calendar for this soul-jarring ride through nightmares. Face *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to uncover these ghostly lessons about the mind.


For director insights, director cuts, and social posts directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit our film’s homepage.





Today’s horror watershed moment: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts braids together ancient-possession motifs, microbudget gut-punches, alongside franchise surges

Ranging from survivor-centric dread infused with near-Eastern lore through to franchise returns plus acutely observed indies, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated as well as carefully orchestrated year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. major banners bookend the months via recognizable brands, at the same time premium streamers front-load the fall with new perspectives together with archetypal fear. In the indie lane, the art-house flank is carried on the momentum of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween stays the prime week, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and now, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal sets the tone with a bold swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a modern-day environment. From director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. arriving mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Led by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

By late summer, Warner’s slate sets loose the finale from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re engages, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: vintage toned fear, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The stakes escalate here, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The return delves further into myth, broadens the animatronic terror cast, bridging teens and legacy players. It hits in December, pinning the winter close.

Digital Originals: No Budget, No Problem

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

More contained by design is Together, a tight space body horror vignette led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative fronted 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 narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to 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 horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No overinflated mythology. No sequel clutter. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, with Francis Lawrence directing, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Season Ahead: 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 like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. 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 assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The coming 2026 scare calendar year ahead: continuations, fresh concepts, and also A Crowded Calendar tailored for nightmares

Dek: The emerging terror cycle builds up front with a January glut, from there carries through peak season, and far into the winter holidays, blending marquee clout, untold stories, and strategic alternatives. Major distributors and platforms are focusing on mid-range economics, box-office-first windows, and social-driven marketing that turn these releases into cross-demo moments.

How the genre looks for 2026

The horror marketplace has solidified as the steady option in studio lineups, a corner that can scale when it lands and still safeguard the exposure when it stumbles. After 2023 re-taught buyers that low-to-mid budget horror vehicles can command social chatter, the following year maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and surprise hits. The momentum carried into 2025, where returns and elevated films showed there is a market for diverse approaches, from series extensions to original features that play globally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a schedule that reads highly synchronized across studios, with clear date clusters, a pairing of marquee IP and new packages, and a refocused attention on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on paid VOD and SVOD.

Buyers contend the genre now works like a schedule utility on the schedule. Horror can premiere on many corridors, provide a simple premise for spots and shorts, and outpace with ticket buyers that appear on preview nights and hold through the next pass if the offering hits. In the wake of a production delay era, the 2026 rhythm indicates assurance in that dynamic. The calendar opens with a crowded January lineup, then primes spring and early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a September to October window that carries into the Halloween frame and into November. The layout also includes the expanded integration of specialized labels and subscription services that can launch in limited release, stoke social talk, and grow at the strategic time.

Another broad trend is series management across interlocking continuities and legacy IP. The companies are not just greenlighting another entry. They are aiming to frame threaded continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title treatment that flags a new vibe or a talent selection that binds a incoming chapter to a vintage era. At the parallel to that, the filmmakers behind the most anticipated originals are championing physical effects work, physical gags and site-specific worlds. That alloy gives the 2026 slate a solid mix of trust and novelty, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount defines the early cadence with two prominent titles that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the focus, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a DNA-forward character-forward chapter. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance conveys a classic-referencing treatment without covering again the last two entries’ sibling arc. Count on a promo wave rooted in iconic art, character spotlights, and a tiered teaser plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reboots 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 as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will double down on. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will go after large awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick reframes to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three clear releases. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is straightforward, tragic, and big-hook: a grieving man installs an digital partner that mutates into a lethal partner. The date sets it at the front of a stacked January, with marketing at Universal likely to iterate on viral uncanny stunts and bite-size content that interweaves romance and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules 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 listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a final title to become an fan moment closer to the first trailer. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele projects are marketed as signature events, with a concept-forward tease and a second wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway gives Universal room to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has proven that a tactile, on-set effects led method can feel big on a controlled budget. Expect a red-band summer horror charge that centers international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, sustaining a dependable supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is marketing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both players and newcomers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build marketing units around world-building, and creature work, elements that can stoke premium format interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in textural authenticity and period speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus’s team has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is warm.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on proven patterns. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a stair-step that elevates both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the back half. Prime Video pairs catalogue additions with worldwide entries and short theatrical plays when the data points to it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in back-catalog play, using well-timed internal promotions, horror hubs, and editorial rows to prolong the run on aggregate take. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival pickups, dating horror entries closer to launch and positioning as event drops releases with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a two-step of precision theatrical plays and fast windowing that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a discrete basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to acquire select projects with name filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation surges.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting 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 angle is simple: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, elevated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas window to broaden. That positioning has worked well for auteur horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using mini theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their audience.

Brands and originals

By share, 2026 is weighted toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage brand equity. The challenge, as ever, is diminishing returns. The workable fix is to package each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is centering character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-tinted vision from a rising filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the packaging is recognizable enough to spark pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Recent comps make sense of the approach. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that preserved streaming windows did not hamper a parallel release from winning when the brand was sticky. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror exceeded expectations in premium screens. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they angle differently and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues 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, builds a path for marketing to thread films through character arcs and themes and to leave creative active without extended gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft conversations behind these films signal a continued preference for material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that highlights tone and tension rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft features before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and creates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta refresh that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on monster aesthetics and world-building, which align with convention floor stunts and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel irresistible. Look for trailers that foreground razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that work in PLF.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid larger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the variety of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late winter and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the this content big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Back half into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a early fall window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card burn.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s founding notes. 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 devastated man’s digital partner unfolds into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: gothic-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 battle to survive on a uninhabited island as the pecking order tilts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fright, grounded in Cronin’s practical craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting chiller that mediates the fear via a youngster’s shifting internal vantage. Rating: to be announced. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-built and marquee-led supernatural mood piece.

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 genre lampoon that skewers present-day genre chatter and true crime fascinations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: lensing scheduled 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 breaks out, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new household caught in older hauntings. Rating: awaiting classification. 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: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survivalist horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: pending. 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: unrevealed. Logline: closely held. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: proceeding. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and elemental fear. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that paused or migrated in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic 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 launches. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on repeatable beats from test screenings, curated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Calendar math also matters. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will compete across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where 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 stealth overachiever 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, tight deployments, 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 dimensionality, sound, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand power where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, guard the secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.