Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a nerve shredding chiller, launching October 2025 across major platforms

A bone-chilling unearthly suspense story from screenwriter / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an primeval nightmare when drifters become victims in a satanic ordeal. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving tale of endurance and mythic evil that will reconstruct scare flicks this cool-weather season. Crafted by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and claustrophobic fearfest follows five figures who snap to trapped in a hidden shelter under the menacing influence of Kyra, a mysterious girl dominated by a millennia-old biblical demon. Ready yourself to be ensnared by a motion picture experience that integrates bone-deep fear with ancestral stories, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a long-standing foundation in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is twisted when the fiends no longer descend from an outside force, but rather inside them. This embodies the shadowy layer of each of them. The result is a riveting mind game where the intensity becomes a ongoing tug-of-war between good and evil.


In a barren backcountry, five youths find themselves cornered under the dark effect and curse of a obscure female presence. As the victims becomes paralyzed to fight her curse, abandoned and targeted by forces mind-shattering, they are compelled to stand before their inner demons while the timeline without pity counts down toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety intensifies and partnerships collapse, coercing each protagonist to question their identity and the concept of freedom of choice itself. The cost accelerate with every instant, delivering a terror ride that merges unearthly horror with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to dive into pure dread, an threat before modern man, manipulating psychological breaks, and testing a presence that threatens selfhood when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra called for internalizing something far beyond human desperation. She is clueless until the takeover begins, and that turn is emotionally raw because it is so emotional.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for on-demand beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing subscribers worldwide can engage with this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first preview, which has racked up over six-figure audience.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, offering the tale to a worldwide audience.


Witness this bone-rattling journey into fear. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to dive into these spiritual awakenings about the soul.


For sneak peeks, on-set glimpses, and insider scoops from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursed across your socials and visit the official website.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: the 2025 season U.S. calendar weaves biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, plus franchise surges

Spanning endurance-driven terror rooted in old testament echoes through to canon extensions as well as sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is coalescing into the most complex and deliberate year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. leading studios bookend the months using marquee IP, even as streamers flood the fall with debut heat paired with legend-coded dread. In parallel, horror’s indie wing is drafting behind the afterglow from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and now, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the base, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s slate leads off the quarter with a confident swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. Steered by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. dated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Directed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s schedule bows the concluding entry from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 follows. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: nostalgic menace, trauma as narrative engine, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time, the stakes are raised, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The follow up digs further into canon, grows the animatronic horror lineup, speaking to teens and older millennials. It opens in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Digital Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a close quarters body horror study fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative featuring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. From writer director 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. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed 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 is canny scheduling. No bloated canon. No canon weight. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

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

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

What to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Originals on platforms bite harder
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Outlook: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The new chiller cycle: next chapters, new stories, in tandem with A busy Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek The incoming terror cycle builds right away with a January pile-up, subsequently spreads through June and July, and pushing into the year-end corridor, braiding brand equity, untold stories, and shrewd alternatives. Studios and platforms are doubling down on efficient budgets, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that turn horror entries into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has shown itself to be the sturdy move in annual schedules, a lane that can scale when it performs and still cushion the risk when it stumbles. After 2023 reminded top brass that mid-range scare machines can shape the discourse, the following year sustained momentum with filmmaker-forward plays and word-of-mouth wins. The run moved into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers signaled there is space for several lanes, from sequel tracks to standalone ideas that perform internationally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a run that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with mapped-out bands, a pairing of familiar brands and novel angles, and a sharpened strategy on big-screen windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium on-demand and home streaming.

Executives say the space now performs as a schedule utility on the distribution slate. The genre can debut on most weekends, deliver a clear pitch for previews and TikTok spots, and lead with fans that line up on early shows and keep coming through the sophomore frame if the title works. On the heels of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence shows faith in that playbook. The calendar gets underway with a stacked January stretch, then exploits spring through early summer for contrast, while keeping space for a September to October window that reaches into late October and into the next week. The arrangement also reflects the tightening integration of indie distributors and streamers that can platform and widen, create conversation, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

A second macro trend is IP stewardship across unified worlds and classic IP. Major shops are not just greenlighting another follow-up. They are aiming to frame connection with a sense of event, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a refreshed voice or a casting pivot that ties a incoming chapter to a early run. At the very same time, the visionaries behind the most watched originals are favoring practical craft, practical effects and grounded locations. That blend affords the 2026 slate a confident blend of brand comfort and surprise, which is the formula for international play.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount establishes early momentum with two centerpiece pushes that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the spine, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a DNA-forward character-first story. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture announces a legacy-leaning mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Look for a marketing run fueled by classic imagery, character previews, and a tease cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will stress. As a summer alternative, this one will pursue four-quadrant chatter through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick redirects to whatever shapes the social talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that shifts into a harmful mate. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to iterate on creepy live activations and bite-size content that interweaves longing and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a proper title to become an marketing beat closer to the teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele projects are branded as event films, with a teaser with minimal detail and a next wave of trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The prime October weekend opens a lane to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a raw, prosthetic-heavy method can feel big on a controlled budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror shot that leans hard into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, carrying a bankable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is marketing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both longtime followers and new audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build promo materials around lore, and monster craft, 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 Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in historical precision and linguistic texture, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus Features has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is robust.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. The studio’s horror films move to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ordering that enhances both debut momentum and platform bumps in the later phase. Prime Video balances library titles with cross-border buys and small theatrical windows when the data signals it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in deep cuts, using seasonal hubs, horror hubs, and curated strips to prolong the run on lifetime take. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival additions, dating horror entries closer to launch and making event-like launches with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a staged of limited theatrical footprints and rapid platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a selective basis. The platform has been willing to secure select projects with established auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation builds.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 corridor with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is no-nonsense: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, upgraded for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a cinema-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late stretch.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has paid off for prestige horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception justifies. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using limited theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their membership.

IP versus fresh ideas

By volume, 2026 tips toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use brand equity. The watch-out, as ever, is fatigue. The operating solution is to market each entry as a new angle. Paramount is foregrounding character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French sensibility from a rising filmmaker. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and talent-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the deal build is recognizable enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and early previews.

Recent comps illuminate the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that honored streaming windows did not deter a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror popped in premium large format. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they rotate perspective and increase ambition. 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 two-film strategy, with chapters lensed back-to-back, allows marketing to connect the chapters through protagonists and motifs and to hold creative in the market without pause points.

How the look and feel evolve

The filmmaking conversations behind 2026 horror signal a continued emphasis on real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that underscores grain and menace rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft profiles and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that leans on mood over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and sparks shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a self-referential reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature and environment design, which work nicely for expo activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is jammed. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid bigger brand plays. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the range of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth endures.

Early-year through spring tee up summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now backs 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a peekaboo tease plan and limited pre-release reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that this contact form genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card spend.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s core. 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 AI companion unfolds into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: aura-driven 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 fight to survive on a far-flung island as the chain of command turns and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to dread, rooted in Cronin’s hands-on craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting narrative that channels the fear through a little one’s volatile point of view. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that targets of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime obsessions. Rating: pending. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 spreads, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a young family lashed to ancient dread. Rating: TBA. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A new start designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-driven horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: to be announced. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: forthcoming. Production: ongoing. 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 primordial menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the moment is 2026

Three grounded forces shape this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or re-slotted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine bite-size scare clips from test screenings, select scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will jostle across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the strike 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, sound, and visual design 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, Lined Up To Scare

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is franchise muscle where it helps, original vision where it matters, 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, hold the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.