Primordial Dread awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding feature, rolling out October 2025 on major streaming services

A bone-chilling mystic nightmare movie from dramatist / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an primeval fear when drifters become subjects in a satanic game. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish saga of overcoming and prehistoric entity that will transform scare flicks this autumn. Realized by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and tone-heavy motion picture follows five people who find themselves ensnared in a unreachable house under the malevolent dominion of Kyra, a central character possessed by a ancient ancient fiend. Be warned to be seized by a filmic spectacle that combines soul-chilling terror with legendary tales, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a historical tradition in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is inverted when the presences no longer develop from a different plane, but rather inside them. This illustrates the most primal part of each of them. The result is a gripping psychological battle where the conflict becomes a constant contest between righteousness and malevolence.


In a forsaken landscape, five individuals find themselves isolated under the ghastly effect and spiritual invasion of a elusive apparition. As the ensemble becomes helpless to escape her grasp, exiled and stalked by entities ungraspable, they are cornered to reckon with their raw vulnerabilities while the clock without pity draws closer toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease escalates and alliances collapse, driving each person to challenge their true nature and the integrity of liberty itself. The risk mount with every short lapse, delivering a scare-fueled ride that weaves together otherworldly suspense with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to uncover pure dread, an spirit beyond time, embedding itself in mental cracks, and examining a will that peels away humanity when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant channeling something rooted in terror. She is unseeing until the demon emerges, and that transition is deeply unsettling because it is so deep.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for worldwide release beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure viewers in all regions can face this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first trailer, which has been viewed over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, giving access to the movie to viewers around the world.


Be sure to catch this cinematic exploration of dread. Enter *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to explore these fearful discoveries about the mind.


For previews, behind-the-scenes content, and news via the production team, follow @YACFilm across fan hubs and visit our horror hub.





Contemporary horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 for genre fans U.S. lineup melds biblical-possession ideas, underground frights, alongside legacy-brand quakes

Across survivor-centric dread inspired by legendary theology through to series comebacks and cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 looks like the most stratified paired with blueprinted year in years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio majors are anchoring the year with familiar IP, as subscription platforms front-load the fall with emerging auteurs as well as mythic dread. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is carried on the afterglow from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are surgical, thus 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

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

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s schedule sets the tone with a statement play: a refashioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. dated for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Steered by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer wanes, Warner’s pipeline unveils the final movement from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson re boards, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: throwback unease, trauma as narrative engine, with ghostly inner logic. This run ups the stakes, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, stretches the animatronic parade, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It opens in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatrical skews franchise first, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette featuring Alison Brie opposite 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 reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale with Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

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.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written 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 the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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 a calculated bet. No swollen lore. No series drag. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Long Running Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

Dials to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror reemerges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
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 glow translates to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

What’s Next: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

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 like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new fright release year: next chapters, non-franchise titles, together with A stacked Calendar calibrated for chills

Dek: The new scare slate crowds up front with a January traffic jam, and then carries through June and July, and carrying into the winter holidays, braiding series momentum, original angles, and calculated counterprogramming. Studios and streamers are committing to tight budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and platform-native promos that transform these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has proven to be the bankable tool in release plans, a genre that can surge when it clicks and still buffer the downside when it fails to connect. After 2023 signaled to top brass that cost-conscious genre plays can galvanize pop culture, the following year continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and surprise hits. The upswing rolled into 2025, where reawakened brands and awards-minded projects confirmed there is a market for different modes, from sequel tracks to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The result for the 2026 slate is a programming that reads highly synchronized across the market, with defined corridors, a pairing of familiar brands and untested plays, and a renewed emphasis on theater exclusivity that fuel later windows on premium on-demand and home streaming.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now serves as a utility player on the distribution slate. Horror can open on open real estate, create a tight logline for trailers and vertical videos, and punch above weight with audiences that turn out on Thursday previews and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the film satisfies. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 setup demonstrates comfort in that playbook. The slate opens with a weighty January block, then targets spring into early summer for balance, while holding room for a October build that stretches into the fright window and afterwards. The map also shows the tightening integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can platform and widen, build word of mouth, and move wide at the timely point.

A reinforcing pattern is brand management across shared universes and veteran brands. Distribution groups are not just pushing another installment. They are trying to present story carry-over with a premium feel, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that anchors a new entry to a heyday. At the very same time, the auteurs behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to hands-on technique, practical gags and specific settings. That mix affords the 2026 slate a confident blend of comfort and discovery, which is how the films export.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount fires first with two centerpiece entries that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the spine, steering it as both a baton pass and a classic-mode character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the narrative stance suggests a nostalgia-forward mode without covering again the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Anticipate a campaign fueled by franchise iconography, early character teases, and a tiered teaser plan targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will stress. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick redirects to whatever shapes the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is tidy, somber, and concept-forward: a grieving man brings home an digital partner that evolves into a perilous partner. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to reprise 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 code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing 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.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s work are branded as event films, with a teaser with minimal detail and a follow-up trailer set that define feel without revealing the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has made clear that a blood-soaked, on-set effects led method can feel elevated on a middle budget. Position this as a red-band summer horror blast that centers global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is marketing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both devotees and fresh viewers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build assets around lore, and monster design, elements that can drive PLF interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by minute detail and historical speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. The imprint has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is positive.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform tactics for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ladder that amplifies both week-one demand and sign-up momentum in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed titles with global pickups and short theatrical plays when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and collection rows to prolong the run on overall cume. Netflix keeps options open about original films and festival buys, timing horror entries tight to release and elevating as drops debuts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a laddered of focused cinema runs and quick platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has proven amenable to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for sustained usage when the genre conversation swells.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 pipeline with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is simple: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, updated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas corridor to move out. That positioning has worked well for prestige horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception supports. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subs.

Brands and originals

By proportion, 2026 bends toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use name recognition. The trade-off, as ever, is brand erosion. The practical approach is to position each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the configuration is recognizable enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years frame the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that respected streaming windows did not obstruct a same-day experiment from succeeding when the brand was big. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror exceeded expectations in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they angle differently and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters lensed back-to-back, enables marketing to bridge entries through relationships and themes and to keep assets in-market without long gaps.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind the 2026 entries telegraph a continued preference for tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that spotlights creep and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft coverage before rolling out a mood teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and drives shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta refresh that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature craft and set design, which play well in fan-con activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that spotlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is busy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid bigger brand plays. The month ends 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 real, but the menu of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Winter into spring build the summer base. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now accommodates 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film 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 flag plant that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s intelligent companion turns into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 struggle to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic reverses and paranoia spreads. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, driven by Cronin’s tactile craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting scenario that interrogates the fright of a child’s wobbly interpretations. Rating: rating pending. Production: in the can. 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 reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody return that riffs on of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fervors. Rating: TBA. Production: production booked 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 erupts, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a another family anchored to past horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A new start designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-core horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: pending. Production: underway. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and primal menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that paused or shifted in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify bite-size scare clips from test screenings, metered scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, making room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will line up across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, 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 live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-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 exploit those windows. 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 this content copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound, 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

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is name recognition where it counts, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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, roll out exact trailers, hold the mystery, and let the fear sell the seats.