Ancient Malevolence Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising shocker, debuting Oct 2025 on major platforms

One bone-chilling paranormal scare-fest from screenwriter / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an primeval force when strangers become victims in a demonic game. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing depiction of survival and ancient evil that will transform scare flicks this season. Realized by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and emotionally thick film follows five unknowns who are stirred stuck in a isolated hideaway under the aggressive rule of Kyra, a possessed female inhabited by a biblical-era sacrosanct terror. Be warned to be absorbed by a audio-visual spectacle that intertwines deep-seated panic with biblical origins, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a historical fixture in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is turned on its head when the spirits no longer descend externally, but rather deep within. This represents the most terrifying part of all involved. The result is a bone-chilling moral showdown where the narrative becomes a intense contest between good and evil.


In a abandoned no-man's-land, five youths find themselves trapped under the ominous presence and overtake of a uncanny figure. As the ensemble becomes submissive to deny her command, exiled and tracked by evils beyond reason, they are forced to reckon with their inner demons while the countdown relentlessly ticks onward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension swells and associations implode, coercing each survivor to scrutinize their character and the idea of freedom of choice itself. The consequences intensify with every passing moment, delivering a terror ride that connects otherworldly suspense with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to dive into primal fear, an entity from ancient eras, emerging via human fragility, and navigating a force that peels away humanity when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra demanded embodying something rooted in terror. She is oblivious until the invasion happens, and that transition is haunting because it is so intimate.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be released for digital release beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing streamers across the world can enjoy this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its intro video, which has gathered over massive response.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, spreading the horror to viewers around the world.


Do not miss this haunted ride through nightmares. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to face these spiritual awakenings about the psyche.


For film updates, extra content, and social posts from the creators, follow @YACFilm across your socials and visit our spooky domain.





Modern horror’s sea change: 2025 across markets U.S. Slate Mixes biblical-possession ideas, festival-born jolts, and legacy-brand quakes

Beginning with grit-forward survival fare saturated with mythic scripture to installment follow-ups paired with pointed art-house angles, 2025 stands to become the most complex together with precision-timed year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. leading studios are anchoring the year using marquee IP, as subscription platforms front-load the fall with new voices together with ancestral chills. At the same time, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is drafting behind the kinetic energy from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Since Halloween is the prized date, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, though in this cycle, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are precise, hence 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: High-craft horror returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the base, 2025 accelerates.

Universal Pictures kicks off the frame with a statement play: a modernized Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Slated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Guided by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule sets loose the finale from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re teams, and the tone that worked before is intact: old school creep, trauma as narrative engine, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The stakes escalate here, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The return delves further into myth, broadens the animatronic terror cast, reaching teens and game grownups. It books December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Firsts: Low budgets, big teeth

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

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Playing chamber scale is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn with Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No heavy handed lore. No brand fatigue. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror comes roaring back
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Projection: 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 such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The next scare slate: Sequels, original films, plus A stacked Calendar calibrated for frights

Dek: The arriving horror slate packs in short order with a January pile-up, subsequently stretches through the summer months, and deep into the December corridor, blending franchise firepower, inventive spins, and calculated calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that pivot these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The field has emerged as the most reliable release in annual schedules, a lane that can expand when it performs and still mitigate the losses when it falls short. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that modestly budgeted entries can command cultural conversation, 2024 maintained heat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and word-of-mouth wins. The head of steam rolled into the 2025 frame, where returns and prestige plays confirmed there is space for varied styles, from legacy continuations to director-led originals that carry overseas. The net effect for 2026 is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across players, with strategic blocks, a balance of familiar brands and novel angles, and a re-energized stance on theatrical windows that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and subscription services.

Distribution heads claim the category now works like a versatile piece on the programming map. Horror can roll out on open real estate, generate a grabby hook for teasers and social clips, and over-index with demo groups that lean in on opening previews and return through the second weekend if the entry lands. On the heels of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 plan signals comfort in that model. The calendar commences with a busy January schedule, then exploits spring through early summer for genre counterpoints, while carving room for a autumn stretch that connects to the fright window and into early November. The program also includes the stronger partnership of boutique distributors and digital platforms that can platform a title, stoke social talk, and broaden at the timely point.

A second macro trend is IP stewardship across unified worlds and veteran brands. Distribution groups are not just releasing another follow-up. They are working to present threaded continuity with a occasion, whether that is a title treatment that suggests a refreshed voice or a lead change that bridges a fresh chapter to a foundational era. At the in tandem, the visionaries behind the eagerly awaited originals are embracing material texture, practical effects and grounded locations. That pairing provides the 2026 slate a healthy mix of assurance and unexpected turns, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount marks the early tempo with two headline plays that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the lead, angling it as both a lineage transfer and a rootsy character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach suggests a classic-referencing approach without covering again the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Anticipate a campaign leaning on recognizable motifs, early character teases, and a staggered trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also reboots 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 contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will emphasize. As a counterweight in summer, this one will pursue mass reach through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format inviting quick turns to whatever shapes pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three specific projects. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is clean, sorrow-tinged, and big-hook: a grieving man activates an synthetic partner that mutates into a lethal partner. The date positions it at the front of a stacked January, with marketing at Universal likely to iterate on uncanny-valley stunts and snackable content that mixes intimacy and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title drop to become an teaser payoff closer to the debut look. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s releases are presented as director events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a next wave of trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor opens a lane to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate 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 helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a raw, prosthetic-heavy method can feel big on a controlled budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror surge that pushes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, keeping a proven supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is calling a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both core fans and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build promo materials around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can stoke premium format interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants 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 built on immersive craft and historical speech, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is warm.

Platform lanes and windowing

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s genre entries window into copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a stair-step that fortifies both week-one demand and sign-up momentum in the later window. Prime Video balances library titles with worldwide buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in back-catalog play, using prominent placements, seasonal hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix keeps flexible about Netflix originals and festival additions, timing horror entries closer to drop and turning into events launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of focused cinema runs and prompt platform moves that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a selective basis. The platform has been willing to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is crafting 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 offer is tight: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, retooled for modern sonics 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 positioned a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas corridor to increase reach. That positioning has shown results for prestige horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception prompts. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using targeted theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their community.

Legacy titles versus originals

By skew, the 2026 slate leans toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use fan equity. The question, as ever, is diminishing returns. The preferred tactic is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is bringing forward character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the package is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent-year comps contextualize the logic. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept streaming intact did not block a simultaneous release test from hitting when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror surged in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they change perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, gives leeway to marketing to link the films through character web and themes and to leave creative active without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind 2026 horror point to a continued shift toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft features before rolling out a initial teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature craft and set design, which fit with convention floor stunts and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel compelling. Look for trailers that center disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that shine in top rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is busy. 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 brooding contrast amid larger brand plays. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the menu of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Post-January through spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes 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 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can thrive 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.

August into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited advance reveals that center concept over reveals.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s algorithmic partner escalates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: atmospheric 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 difficult boss fight to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power swivels and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to terror, anchored by Cronin’s on-set craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 family-home haunting chiller that toys with the terror of a child’s tricky read. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-grade and toplined ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A spoof revival that skewers contemporary horror memes and true crime fixations. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new family snared by long-buried horrors. Rating: pending. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward classic survival-horror tone over action spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBD. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and ancient menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces shape this lineup. First, production that downshifted or shuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming launches. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on repeatable beats from test screenings, precision scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will line up across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the target range. 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. my review here Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sound field, and picture 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is IP strength where it matters, new vision where it lands, 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.