Antediluvian Evil reawakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked shocker, premiering October 2025 across top digital platforms

One chilling unearthly fright fest from dramatist / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an timeless dread when guests become victims in a diabolical game. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing saga of endurance and ancient evil that will redefine the fear genre this autumn. Created by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and moody screenplay follows five characters who arise stuck in a secluded hideaway under the malevolent control of Kyra, a female lead claimed by a 2,000-year-old Old Testament spirit. Be prepared to be seized by a immersive journey that unites deep-seated panic with ancient myths, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a classic narrative in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is subverted when the presences no longer descend beyond the self, but rather from deep inside. This mirrors the most hidden shade of the cast. The result is a psychologically brutal internal warfare where the events becomes a intense contest between righteousness and malevolence.


In a unforgiving forest, five adults find themselves confined under the ghastly presence and control of a uncanny spirit. As the ensemble becomes incapacitated to deny her command, cut off and pursued by unknowns unimaginable, they are driven to reckon with their deepest fears while the hours mercilessly pushes forward toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension builds and partnerships erode, pressuring each participant to contemplate their values and the concept of decision-making itself. The threat rise with every fleeting time, delivering a nightmarish journey that intertwines occult fear with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dig into deep fear, an entity born of forgotten ages, manipulating emotional fractures, and highlighting a curse that forces self-examination when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra asked for exploring something beneath mortal despair. She is uninformed until the possession kicks in, and that turn is harrowing because it is so private.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure users around the globe can face this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original clip, which has collected over notable views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, taking the terror to a worldwide audience.


Witness this bone-rattling journey into fear. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to face these nightmarish insights about mankind.


For cast commentary, special features, and social posts from the creators, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across social media and visit our spooky domain.





Today’s horror Turning Point: the 2025 season domestic schedule braids together myth-forward possession, microbudget gut-punches, paired with Franchise Rumbles

From survivor-centric dread steeped in biblical myth as well as IP renewals set beside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 stands to become the most complex in tandem with tactically planned year in recent memory.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Major studios lay down anchors using marquee IP, simultaneously digital services pack the fall with fresh voices together with ancestral chills. On the festival side, the artisan tier is surfing the afterglow of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween holding the peak, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, though in this cycle, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, accordingly 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige fear returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s slate fires the first shot with a big gambit: a reimagined Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. arriving 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 adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Guided by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer winds down, Warner’s pipeline rolls out the capstone inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even with a familiar chassis, 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.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the memorable motifs return: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, with ghostly inner logic. The ante is higher this round, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The new chapter enriches the lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, courting teens and the thirty something base. It bows in December, securing the winter cap.

SVOD Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a two hander body horror spiral including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it looks like a certain fall stream.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No bloated mythology. No franchise baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy IP: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, under Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

What to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror comes roaring back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to 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 back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

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. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The next fright slate: entries, original films, paired with A packed Calendar Built For Scares

Dek: The fresh terror season stacks from day one with a January crush, and then flows through peak season, and far into the late-year period, balancing series momentum, inventive spins, and smart counterweight. Studio marketers and platforms are leaning into smart costs, theatrical-first rollouts, and platform-native promos that frame genre releases into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s status entering 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the most reliable release in studio slates, a pillar that can grow when it resonates and still protect the drawdown when it stumbles. After 2023 demonstrated to studio brass that modestly budgeted pictures can command the zeitgeist, the following year maintained heat with director-led heat and stealth successes. The carry rolled into the 2025 frame, where revivals and prestige plays confirmed there is room for diverse approaches, from franchise continuations to non-IP projects that travel well. The end result for the 2026 slate is a run that presents tight coordination across studios, with mapped-out bands, a combination of brand names and untested plays, and a recommitted priority on theater exclusivity that enhance post-theatrical value on PVOD and streaming.

Executives say the horror lane now functions as a plug-and-play option on the schedule. Horror can bow on virtually any date, offer a clean hook for ad units and platform-native cuts, and exceed norms with patrons that line up on early shows and keep coming through the sophomore frame if the entry connects. Exiting a production delay era, the 2026 layout signals confidence in that engine. The slate kicks off with a thick January stretch, then primes spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while making space for a late-year stretch that flows toward late October and beyond. The layout also includes the expanded integration of specialty distributors and SVOD players that can build gradually, stoke social talk, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is legacy care across interlocking continuities and storied titles. Big banners are not just producing another follow-up. They are setting up threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a casting pivot that reconnects a incoming chapter to a early run. At the simultaneously, the writer-directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing in-camera technique, in-camera effects and site-specific worlds. That interplay hands 2026 a lively combination of known notes and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount establishes early momentum with two spotlight moves that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, marketing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a origin-leaning character-centered film. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a memory-charged approach without looping the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Look for a marketing run driven by classic imagery, early character teases, and a promo sequence hitting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also revives 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 hunt mass reach through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format permitting quick shifts to whatever drives pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three discrete plays. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, loss-driven, and big-hook: a grieving man implements an AI companion that grows into a dangerous lover. The date slots it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the marketing arm likely to echo viral uncanny stunts and snackable content that hybridizes longing and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a official title to become an earned moment closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele projects are framed as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a second trailer wave that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-October frame creates space for Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has demonstrated that a visceral, on-set effects led method can feel premium on a lean spend. Position this as a hard-R summer horror jolt that emphasizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio places two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, carrying a reliable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is billing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both players and casuals. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around universe detail, and practical creature work, elements that can amplify format premiums and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by historical precision and period language, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus’s team has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s horror titles land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ladder that amplifies both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed films with worldwide buys and limited cinema engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog discovery, using editorial spots, fright rows, and curated strips to prolong the run on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays nimble about internal projects and festival buys, timing horror entries near their drops and framing as events rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a two-step of tailored theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a situational basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with name filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly engagement when the genre conversation builds.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 lane with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is clear: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, modernized for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the October weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas corridor to broaden. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception merits. Look for 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 as partners, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchises versus originals

By skew, 2026 leans toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit franchise value. The caveat, as ever, is viewer burnout. The preferred tactic is to present each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is emphasizing character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a continental coloration from a rising filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the cast-creatives package is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and first-night audiences.

Three-year comps help explain the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that held distribution windows did not foreclose a simultaneous release test from performing when the brand was potent. In 2024, auteur craft horror surged in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they shift POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters lensed back-to-back, enables marketing to tie installments through character spine and themes and to keep assets in-market without long breaks.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind the 2026 entries foreshadow a continued preference for tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that highlights atmosphere and fear rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft coverage before rolling out a tone piece that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and gathers shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-aware reset that returns to the core star. 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 audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that foreground fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that explode in larger rooms.

Annual flow

January is full. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the mix of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Late Q1 and spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy momentum. 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 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Back half into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a early fall window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a minimalist tease strategy and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card use.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s virtual companion turns into something seductively lethal. 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 hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 prickly boss work to survive on a far-flung island as the hierarchy shifts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fright, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting premise that frames the panic through a kid’s flickering point of view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-built and star-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A spoof revival that skewers contemporary horror memes and true crime fervors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. 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 ignites, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further opens again, with a unlucky family bound to older hauntings. Rating: not yet rated. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: not yet rated. Production: continuing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 raw menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three pragmatic forces structure this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-slotted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and pared-down 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work turnkey scare beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

A fourth factor is programming math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where modest-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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer 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 click site recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns 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 chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, sound field, and camera work 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is IP strength where it matters, filmmaker 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.