Primeval Dread surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across major platforms

This blood-curdling unearthly fright fest from author / director Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an archaic force when guests become puppets in a cursed game. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking saga of staying alive and primeval wickedness that will redefine the fear genre this harvest season. Visualized by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and eerie cinema piece follows five unacquainted souls who awaken trapped in a wooded hideaway under the sinister manipulation of Kyra, a female lead consumed by a biblical-era sacrosanct terror. Arm yourself to be absorbed by a theatrical display that fuses intense horror with spiritual backstory, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a long-standing fixture in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is reversed when the dark entities no longer descend from beyond, but rather from deep inside. This depicts the most terrifying corner of the players. The result is a gripping spiritual tug-of-war where the tension becomes a ongoing fight between virtue and vice.


In a remote terrain, five young people find themselves isolated under the dark force and control of a unknown entity. As the cast becomes vulnerable to reject her command, isolated and stalked by terrors beyond comprehension, they are pushed to deal with their inner horrors while the seconds relentlessly counts down toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia grows and associations collapse, driving each member to examine their being and the structure of self-determination itself. The intensity escalate with every heartbeat, delivering a horror experience that fuses otherworldly suspense with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to draw upon primal fear, an entity born of forgotten ages, manifesting in inner turmoil, and challenging a entity that questions who we are when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant channeling something more primal than sorrow. She is uninformed until the spirit seizes her, and that change is emotionally raw because it is so intimate.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for digital release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—offering fans across the world can be part of this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first trailer, which has seen over strong viewer count.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, exporting the fear to international horror buffs.


Do not miss this bone-rattling voyage through terror. Join *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to witness these haunting secrets about existence.


For bonus footage, production insights, and reveals straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your favorite networks and visit our spooky domain.





Current horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 season U.S. Slate interlaces biblical-possession ideas, festival-born jolts, set against returning-series thunder

Kicking off with life-or-death fear infused with scriptural legend through to returning series paired with focused festival visions, 2025 is tracking to be the most complex as well as deliberate year for the modern era.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. top-tier distributors hold down the year with franchise anchors, even as platform operators prime the fall with unboxed visions together with legend-coded dread. On another front, the artisan tier is catching the backdraft from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The fall stretch is the proving field, but this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: The Return of Prestige Fear

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s pipeline starts the year with a confident swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, inside today’s landscape. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. targeting 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 page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Helmed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer winds down, Warner’s pipeline releases the last chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and those signature textures resurface: throwback unease, trauma as text, with ghostly inner logic. The ante is higher this round, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The return delves further into myth, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It bows in December, securing the winter cap.

Digital Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror chamber piece fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to 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.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As 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. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It looks like sharp programming. No puffed out backstory. No legacy baggage. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Series Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror swings back
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Outlook: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 fear calendar year ahead: follow-ups, new stories, plus A brimming Calendar tailored for nightmares

Dek: The arriving horror slate builds at the outset with a January traffic jam, and then spreads through June and July, and far into the late-year period, braiding series momentum, inventive spins, and shrewd release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are prioritizing smart costs, theatrical-first rollouts, and influencer-ready assets that turn these pictures into national conversation.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror has turned into the steady swing in studio slates, a genre that can surge when it catches and still buffer the downside when it fails to connect. After 2023 reassured leaders that responsibly budgeted scare machines can dominate cultural conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The energy rolled into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and festival-grade titles underscored there is an opening for different modes, from series extensions to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a programming that seems notably aligned across the industry, with clear date clusters, a combination of known properties and new packages, and a refocused attention on theater exclusivity that boost PVOD and platform value on premium video on demand and streaming.

Insiders argue the category now operates like a wildcard on the calendar. Horror can debut on almost any weekend, generate a quick sell for marketing and TikTok spots, and over-index with audiences that lean in on advance nights and sustain through the next weekend if the release hits. After a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 mapping demonstrates assurance in that logic. The slate kicks off with a heavy January corridor, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while saving space for a fall corridor that flows toward the Halloween frame and past the holiday. The arrangement also spotlights the tightening integration of boutique distributors and home platforms that can platform and widen, create conversation, and move wide at the inflection point.

A second macro trend is IP stewardship across interlocking continuities and long-running brands. Studio teams are not just rolling another entry. They are seeking to position lineage with a headline quality, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a re-angled tone or a talent selection that anchors a fresh chapter to a vintage era. At the alongside this, the creative teams behind the most watched originals are leaning into practical craft, on-set effects and distinct locales. That combination delivers 2026 a lively combination of assurance and freshness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount defines the early cadence with two high-profile bets 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 front, signaling it as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode character study. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture suggests a memory-charged framework without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run stacked with signature symbols, initial cast looks, and a promo sequence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will feature. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt mass reach through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick switches to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three distinct pushes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is simple, loss-driven, and big-hook: a grieving man brings home an AI companion that shifts into a murderous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a busy month, with marketing at Universal likely to echo odd public stunts and quick hits that hybridizes attachment and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a official title to become an PR pop closer to the initial promo. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. His entries are branded as director events, with a minimalist tease and a follow-up trailer set that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The spooky-season slot affords Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on 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 directs, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has long shown that a tactile, prosthetic-heavy aesthetic can feel deluxe on a lean spend. Position this as a red-band summer horror shot that centers international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, sustaining a proven supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is billing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both players and novices. The fall slot offers Sony space to build promo materials around world-building, and monster design, elements that can drive IMAX and PLF uptake and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by textural authenticity and period language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The distributor has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is warm.

Platform lanes and windowing

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a tiered path that enhances both premiere heat and sign-up momentum in the late-window. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with international acquisitions and limited cinema engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their edges in deep cuts, using seasonal hubs, seasonal hubs, and editorial rows to stretch the tail on aggregate take. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival pickups, scheduling horror entries toward the drop and positioning as event drops releases with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a one-two of precision theatrical plays and quick platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a selective basis. The platform has been willing to invest in select projects with established auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly activity when the genre conversation builds.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 pipeline with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is no-nonsense: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, updated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a standard theatrical run for the title, an good sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the fall weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, guiding the film through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday corridor to broaden. That positioning has delivered for arthouse horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception justifies. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using boutique theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

IP versus fresh ideas

By count, the 2026 slate leans toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit legacy awareness. The trade-off, as ever, is diminishing returns. The pragmatic answer is to sell each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is underscoring character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-inflected take from a emerging director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival chiller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the team and cast is anchored enough to build pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps make sense of the plan. In 2023, a theater-first model that preserved streaming windows did not deter a day-date move from paying off when the brand was trusted. In 2024, precision craft horror popped in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel new when they change perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot consecutively, creates space for marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to sustain campaign assets without dead zones.

Technique and craft currents

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 slate point to a continued shift toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that elevates texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft features before rolling out a teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at red-band excess, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and creates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta refresh that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster aesthetics and world-building, which are ideal for fan-con activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel necessary. Look for trailers that foreground disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is heavy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid heavier IP. The month buttons 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 legit, but the mix of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late Q1 and spring stage summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now hosts 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 spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Back half into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a opaque tease strategy and limited disclosures that center concept over reveals.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card use.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s DNA. 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 synthetic partner turns into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: tone-first game 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 severe boss claw to survive on a cut-off island as the power balance reverses and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to horror, driven by Cronin’s physical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting story that refracts terror through a preteen’s uneven internal vantage. Rating: pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A send-up revival that skewers present-day genre chatter and true crime fixations. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 erupts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further reopens, with a young family snared by residual nightmares. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-driven horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBD. Production: in progress. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and raw menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three grounded forces organize this lineup. First, production that paused or re-sequenced in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and accelerated schedules. 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate clippable moments from test screenings, precision scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

There is also the slotting calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, freeing space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will jostle across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can leverage 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 stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far More about the author below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 shock 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 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.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, 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 visual texture, soundcraft, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is franchise muscle where it helps, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shocks sell the seats.