Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

An terrifying supernatural terror film from writer / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primordial fear when unrelated individuals become proxies in a devilish ritual. Going live on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing saga of perseverance and ancient evil that will transform terror storytelling this harvest season. Guided by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and atmospheric thriller follows five lost souls who emerge stranded in a unreachable structure under the aggressive manipulation of Kyra, a cursed figure controlled by a 2,000-year-old sacred-era entity. Anticipate to be ensnared by a visual spectacle that merges soul-chilling terror with timeless legends, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a well-established trope in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is inverted when the demons no longer appear externally, but rather from their core. This portrays the most terrifying layer of every character. The result is a psychologically brutal mind game where the emotions becomes a soul-crushing confrontation between innocence and sin.


In a bleak backcountry, five individuals find themselves isolated under the malevolent presence and inhabitation of a enigmatic figure. As the protagonists becomes vulnerable to fight her will, disconnected and preyed upon by terrors unfathomable, they are forced to stand before their inner horrors while the moments ruthlessly edges forward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion escalates and links dissolve, compelling each survivor to doubt their personhood and the integrity of liberty itself. The risk surge with every passing moment, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that intertwines otherworldly panic with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to awaken elemental fright, an entity that predates humanity, emerging via human fragility, and questioning a force that tests the soul when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra required summoning something past sanity. She is insensitive until the invasion happens, and that change is bone-chilling because it is so close.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring watchers from coast to coast can engage with this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its initial teaser, which has racked up over 100K plays.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, presenting the nightmare to a global viewership.


Experience this soul-jarring trip into the unknown. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to experience these fearful discoveries about human nature.


For cast commentary, director cuts, and social posts straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursed across Facebook and TikTok and visit youngandcursed.com.





Horror’s tipping point: 2025 U.S. calendar braids together ancient-possession motifs, underground frights, alongside tentpole growls

Running from grit-forward survival fare drawn from scriptural legend and extending to brand-name continuations paired with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is coalescing into the most dimensioned paired with deliberate year for the modern era.

Call it full, but it is also focused. the big studios lay down anchors through proven series, in tandem streamers front-load the fall with debut heat plus legend-coded dread. Across the art-house lane, the independent cohort is propelled by the afterglow of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the other windows are mapped with care. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, distinctly in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are targeted, hence 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium genre swings back

The top end is active. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal banner sets the tone with an audacious swing: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Led by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Slated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Led by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. Pictures delivers the closing chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re teams, and those signature textures resurface: old school creep, trauma explicitly handled, and eerie supernatural logic. This time the stakes climb, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, stretches the animatronic parade, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It arrives in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Economy, maximum dread

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a two hander body horror spiral starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale featuring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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 looks like sharp programming. No overstuffed canon. No sequel clutter. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Brands: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

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

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, guided by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

What to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Laurels convert to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

What’s Next: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The new chiller calendar year ahead: installments, filmmaker-first projects, in tandem with A jammed Calendar designed for frights

Dek The brand-new terror season stacks from day one with a January wave, thereafter extends through summer, and continuing into the holiday stretch, weaving series momentum, untold stories, and data-minded counterweight. Studios with streamers are prioritizing right-sized spends, big-screen-first runs, and platform-native promos that convert horror entries into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror filmmaking has turned into the predictable move in studio calendars, a category that can expand when it breaks through and still cushion the exposure when it does not. After the 2023 year showed strategy teams that lean-budget genre plays can command audience talk, the following year kept energy high with filmmaker-forward plays and slow-burn breakouts. The energy carried into 2025, where reawakened brands and arthouse crossovers proved there is a lane for different modes, from series extensions to original features that scale internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a run that is strikingly coherent across the field, with mapped-out bands, a pairing of legacy names and new packages, and a tightened strategy on theatrical windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and home streaming.

Planners observe the space now works like a swing piece on the grid. The genre can premiere on nearly any frame, offer a tight logline for promo reels and social clips, and outperform with ticket buyers that come out on early shows and maintain momentum through the next pass if the movie fires. In the wake of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 mapping indicates confidence in that model. The calendar begins with a front-loaded January stretch, then primes spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a fall cadence that runs into All Hallows period and into November. The calendar also reflects the deeper integration of boutique distributors and streamers that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and move wide at the strategic time.

A companion trend is IP cultivation across linked properties and established properties. Major shops are not just turning out another return. They are seeking to position lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a new vibe or a ensemble decision that reconnects a next entry to a vintage era. At the in tandem, the auteurs behind the high-profile originals are championing material texture, in-camera effects and grounded locations. That interplay gives the 2026 slate a robust balance of assurance and freshness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount marks the early tempo with two spotlight pushes that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the lead, marketing it as both a legacy handover and a heritage-centered character study. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the artistic posture hints at a classic-referencing strategy without looping the last two entries’ sisters thread. Look for a marketing run driven by legacy iconography, intro reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will play up. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will pursue general-audience talk through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever dominates genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three unique projects. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man brings home an machine companion that mutates into a murderous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with the marketing arm likely to replay viral uncanny stunts and short-form creative that hybridizes companionship and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a public title to become an teaser payoff closer to the first look. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. The filmmaker’s films are marketed as signature events, with a concept-forward tease and a second wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to 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 directs, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, prosthetic-heavy approach can feel prestige on a controlled budget. Look for a hard-R summer horror rush that spotlights global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio mounts two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, preserving a steady supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both longtime followers and general audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around setting detail, and monster craft, elements that can fuel format premiums and fandom activation.

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 builds on Eggers’ run of period horror centered on careful craft and archaic language, this time circling werewolf lore. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre entries feed copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a tiered path that fortifies both launch urgency and trial spikes in the later phase. Prime Video will mix acquired titles with worldwide entries and brief theater runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using timely promos, horror hubs, and handpicked rows to sustain interest on lifetime take. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix originals and festival pickups, slotting horror entries near launch and turning into events drops with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a hybrid of precision theatrical plays and rapid platforming that translates talk to trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has indicated interest to acquire select projects with accomplished filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 arc with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is simple: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, modernized for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse movies has telegraphed a theatrical rollout for the title, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, guiding the film through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas window to broaden. That positioning has shown results for director-led genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception prompts. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using precision theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By count, the 2026 slate tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The concern, as ever, is brand wear. The workable fix is to market each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles bring the oxygen. 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, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the assembly is assuring enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years illuminate the logic. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not block a day-date try from succeeding when the brand was potent. In 2024, auteur craft horror over-performed in PLF. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, enables marketing to cross-link entries through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets alive without doldrums.

Behind-the-camera trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind 2026 horror point to a continued shift toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that emphasizes mood and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and guild coverage before rolling out a atmospheric tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gross-out texture, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will live or die on monster realization and design, which favor convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that underscore precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

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 brooding contrast amid headline IP. The month concludes 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 credible, but the tonal variety affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited advance reveals that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s intelligent companion escalates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 prickly boss push to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance upends and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to nightmare, anchored by Cronin’s on-set craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting setup that plays with the horror of a child’s tricky point of view. Rating: rating pending. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed and celebrity-led supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that riffs on modern genre fads and true crime fixations. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family entangled with lingering terrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. 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: TBD. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 antique diction and elemental dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shifted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming launches. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest meme-ready beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 lean-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 dark-horse hit 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, 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 buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, efficient placements, 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 surface detail, soundscape, and image-making 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand heft where it matters, new vision where it lands, 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, hold the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.