Mythic Evil awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, landing Oct 2025 across major platforms

One blood-curdling paranormal terror film from scriptwriter / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an ancient fear when unrelated individuals become pawns in a hellish contest. Going live on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking account of perseverance and timeless dread that will revamp fear-driven cinema this ghoul season. Helmed by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and immersive fearfest follows five lost souls who emerge trapped in a unreachable lodge under the hostile influence of Kyra, a mysterious girl consumed by a time-worn holy text monster. Brace yourself to be immersed by a big screen spectacle that intertwines visceral dread with folklore, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a mainstay trope in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is reimagined when the dark entities no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather within themselves. This suggests the most primal element of every character. The result is a psychologically brutal emotional conflict where the conflict becomes a intense push-pull between righteousness and malevolence.


In a desolate woodland, five campers find themselves imprisoned under the evil force and curse of a obscure female figure. As the ensemble becomes unresisting to withstand her control, cut off and pursued by entities unfathomable, they are required to reckon with their inner demons while the final hour coldly runs out toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust intensifies and teams shatter, compelling each person to reflect on their self and the idea of autonomy itself. The hazard surge with every fleeting time, delivering a fear-soaked story that blends demonic fright with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dive into elemental fright, an entity that existed before mankind, manipulating our fears, and exposing a spirit that strips down our being when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra was centered on something beyond human emotion. She is insensitive until the spirit seizes her, and that pivot is deeply unsettling because it is so personal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—delivering audiences worldwide can face this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original promo, which has collected over six-figure audience.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, giving access to the movie to thrill-seekers globally.


Experience this heart-stopping path of possession. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to dive into these ghostly lessons about the mind.


For director insights, making-of footage, and promotions from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across fan hubs and visit youngandcursed.com.





Contemporary horror’s inflection point: calendar year 2025 stateside slate blends old-world possession, signature indie scares, paired with brand-name tremors

Across fight-to-live nightmare stories rooted in biblical myth as well as IP renewals paired with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is tracking to be the most variegated plus strategic year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. the big studios stabilize the year via recognizable brands, at the same time SVOD players flood the fall with discovery plays alongside legend-coded dread. On another front, indie storytellers is propelled by the tailwinds from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are exacting, hence 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige terror resurfaces

The top end is active. If 2024 set the base, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s pipeline leads off the quarter with a risk-forward move: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. targeting mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Guided by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer tapers, Warner’s pipeline bows the concluding entry of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson is back, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: throwback unease, trauma in the foreground, with ghostly inner logic. This time, the stakes are raised, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It drops in December, cornering year end horror.

Platform Plays: Low budgets, big teeth

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale featuring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. 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.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a smart play. No bloated mythology. No canon weight. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are more runway than museum.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, 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.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Signals and Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror returns
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forward View: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The coming 2026 scare calendar year ahead: installments, universe starters, together with A hectic Calendar designed for frights

Dek The brand-new genre year packs right away with a January cluster, and then stretches through the mid-year, and continuing into the holiday frame, mixing brand equity, new voices, and data-minded alternatives. Major distributors and platforms are prioritizing right-sized spends, theatrical leads, and influencer-ready assets that elevate these releases into mainstream chatter.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This category has become the dependable move in annual schedules, a pillar that can accelerate when it performs and still limit the downside when it falls short. After 2023 proved to greenlighters that lean-budget chillers can drive social chatter, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The upswing flowed into 2025, where legacy revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is an opening for many shades, from ongoing IP entries to original one-offs that export nicely. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a schedule that reads highly synchronized across companies, with intentional bunching, a spread of known properties and untested plays, and a renewed priority on cinema windows that fuel later windows on PVOD and SVOD.

Distribution heads claim the space now slots in as a utility player on the calendar. The genre can roll out on almost any weekend, yield a quick sell for trailers and short-form placements, and over-index with demo groups that lean in on Thursday previews and continue through the follow-up frame if the release connects. Following a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 cadence indicates assurance in that model. The year opens with a crowded January window, then uses spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while keeping space for a autumn push that extends to late October and afterwards. The layout also features the ongoing integration of specialized labels and streaming partners that can build gradually, ignite recommendations, and broaden at the strategic time.

A reinforcing pattern is brand strategy across shared universes and long-running brands. Distribution groups are not just greenlighting another follow-up. They are looking to package lineage with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a re-angled tone or a casting choice that reconnects a upcoming film to a heyday. At the parallel to that, the creative leads behind the marquee originals are celebrating hands-on technique, real effects and grounded locations. That mix hands the 2026 slate a lively combination of trust and shock, which is why the genre exports well.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount leads early with two spotlight plays that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, positioning the film as both a succession moment and a foundation-forward character-centered film. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach signals a legacy-leaning framework without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Count on a promo wave driven by recognizable motifs, first-look character reveals, and a tease cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will double down on. As a summer relief option, this one will pursue broad awareness through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format supporting quick pivots to whatever tops genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three defined strategies. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is elegant, melancholic, and premise-first: a grieving man brings home an virtual partner that mutates into a murderous partner. The date puts it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to mirror eerie street stunts and quick hits that blurs longing and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title drop to become an marketing beat closer to the first look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s pictures are treated as auteur events, with a opaque teaser and a second trailer wave that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to take 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has proven that a visceral, in-camera leaning mix can feel cinematic on a mid-range budget. Expect a gore-forward summer horror surge that embraces overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio places two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, preserving a bankable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is calling a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both diehards and newcomers. The fall slot allows Sony to build assets around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can accelerate premium format interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by immersive craft and textual fidelity, this time steeped in lycan lore. The company has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform windowing in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal titles land on copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ordering that fortifies both first-week urgency and sign-up momentum in the back half. Prime Video balances acquired titles with international acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their edges in back-catalog play, using prominent placements, horror hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on aggregate take. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival acquisitions, slotting horror entries with shorter lead times and coalescing around releases with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a staged of focused cinema runs and short jumps to platform that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown appetite to acquire select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 corridor with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is clean: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, elevated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas window to expand. That positioning has helped for filmmaker-first horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible this contact form outlook is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception warrants. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using precision theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchises versus originals

By weight, the 2026 slate tips toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The go-to fix is to brand each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-accented approach from a fresh helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries add 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, features Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the bundle is assuring enough to build pre-sales and Thursday previews.

The last three-year set outline the template. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not hamper a simultaneous release test from performing when the brand was potent. In 2024, director-craft horror rose in premium large format. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they change perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January More about the author 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to cross-link entries through relationships and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without long breaks.

Creative tendencies and craft

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 entries hint at a continued bias toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that spotlights grain and menace rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead press and technical spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and generates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a self-aware reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster work and world-building, which fit with convention floor stunts and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel must-have. Look for trailers that highlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that work in PLF.

Annual flow

January is busy. Universal’s 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 moody palate cleanser amid heftier brand moves. The month caps 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 thick, but the range of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

February through May prepare summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

End of summer through fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a opaque tease strategy and limited plot reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum 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 to be detailed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner grows into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 hard-edged boss try to survive on a uninhabited island as the control dynamic reverses and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to fear, anchored by Cronin’s on-set craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 domestic haunting chiller that interrogates the fear of a child’s inconsistent senses. Rating: rating pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-financed and name-above-title occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A satire sequel that skewers today’s horror trends and true crime fixations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 flares, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new clan caught in lingering terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving forward. 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-precise speech and elemental dread. Rating: undetermined. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a big-screen run before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three operational forces inform this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-slotted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured 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 dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, metered scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Another factor is the scheduling math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will cluster across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 underdog chase 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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. 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome 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 warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, soundcraft, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is IP strength where it matters, auteur intent 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.