Mythic Dread awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding feature, bowing Oct 2025 on leading streamers

This blood-curdling otherworldly fear-driven tale from literary architect / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an primordial malevolence when passersby become tools in a supernatural contest. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching tale of overcoming and primordial malevolence that will revamp the horror genre this fall. Helmed by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and immersive feature follows five unacquainted souls who suddenly rise trapped in a hidden house under the ominous control of Kyra, a central character consumed by a biblical-era sacred-era entity. Get ready to be immersed by a immersive experience that unites bodily fright with ancestral stories, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a historical fixture in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is reversed when the spirits no longer arise beyond the self, but rather internally. This depicts the grimmest shade of the players. The result is a riveting identity crisis where the tension becomes a relentless struggle between purity and corruption.


In a barren terrain, five friends find themselves isolated under the fiendish aura and haunting of a shadowy woman. As the youths becomes unable to reject her will, marooned and stalked by powers inconceivable, they are made to reckon with their inner demons while the seconds ruthlessly ticks toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety escalates and links shatter, pressuring each survivor to rethink their personhood and the idea of self-determination itself. The stakes climb with every minute, delivering a terror ride that weaves together unearthly horror with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to tap into basic terror, an evil before modern man, working through mental cracks, and exposing a entity that redefines identity when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra involved tapping into something beneath mortal despair. She is clueless until the haunting manifests, and that pivot is gut-wrenching because it is so visceral.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for worldwide release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing fans no matter where they are can watch this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its original promo, which has been viewed over 100K plays.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, presenting the nightmare to scare fans abroad.


Join this heart-stopping exploration of dread. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to survive these ghostly lessons about the psyche.


For cast commentary, filmmaker commentary, and promotions from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit our spooky domain.





Horror’s decisive shift: 2025 in focus U.S. calendar blends archetypal-possession themes, underground frights, in parallel with Franchise Rumbles

Moving from survivor-centric dread inspired by mythic scripture and extending to canon extensions as well as acutely observed indies, 2025 looks like horror’s most layered in tandem with precision-timed year in recent memory.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. major banners plant stakes across the year with franchise anchors, simultaneously streamers load up the fall with fresh voices alongside ancient terrors. On the independent axis, the art-house flank is drafting behind the tailwinds from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween stays the prime week, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are calculated, hence 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Premium genre swings back

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 set the base, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with a confident swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. arriving mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

When summer fades, Warner’s schedule releases the last chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, plus otherworld rules that chill. The stakes escalate here, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, grows the animatronic horror lineup, speaking to teens and older millennials. It bows in December, pinning the winter close.

Streamer Exclusives: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a tight space body horror vignette featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Next comes Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and helmed 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 the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. 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.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is an astute call. No overinflated mythology. No series drag. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Series Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

Trends to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror returns
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The next scare season: installments, new stories, alongside A packed Calendar tailored for shocks

Dek: The brand-new genre season builds up front with a January bottleneck, then extends through peak season, and carrying into the year-end corridor, balancing brand heft, original angles, and strategic counterweight. Studios and streamers are doubling down on lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and buzz-forward plans that shape these releases into culture-wide discussion.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has solidified as the steady release in programming grids, a lane that can scale when it performs and still cushion the downside when it falls short. After the 2023 year showed buyers that cost-conscious horror vehicles can drive the national conversation, the following year maintained heat with filmmaker-forward plays and under-the-radar smashes. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and festival-grade titles underscored there is a lane for a variety of tones, from sequel tracks to original features that resonate abroad. The end result for the 2026 slate is a slate that shows rare alignment across players, with clear date clusters, a blend of legacy names and fresh ideas, and a renewed stance on exclusive windows that power the aftermarket on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Buyers contend the space now functions as a swing piece on the programming map. Horror can roll out on virtually any date, offer a sharp concept for teasers and social clips, and lead with patrons that show up on Thursday previews and sustain through the second weekend if the entry connects. Post a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 setup reflects trust in that setup. The slate begins with a busy January corridor, then plants flags in spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while holding room for a late-year stretch that pushes into the fright window and into November. The calendar also shows the deeper integration of boutique distributors and streaming partners that can build gradually, create conversation, and grow at the right moment.

A reinforcing pattern is IP stewardship across shared IP webs and legacy IP. Studios are not just mounting another sequel. They are aiming to frame continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that signals a new vibe or a lead change that connects a incoming chapter to a early run. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the most watched originals are championing material texture, in-camera effects and site-specific worlds. That blend yields 2026 a solid mix of known notes and invention, which is the formula for international play.

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

Paramount fires first with two centerpiece pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the core, presenting it as both a succession moment and a foundation-forward character piece. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a nostalgia-forward approach without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Watch for a push rooted in heritage visuals, early character teases, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will build mainstream recognition through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format making room for quick shifts to whatever tops horror talk that spring.

Universal has three discrete pushes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is simple, soulful, and commercial: a grieving man implements an algorithmic mate that escalates into a killer companion. The date slots it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s team likely to iterate on eerie street stunts and micro spots that hybridizes intimacy and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a proper title to become an PR pop closer to the first look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His entries are positioned as signature events, with a teaser that holds back and a next wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date creates space for Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has consistently shown that a blood-soaked, practical-first method can feel high-value on a efficient spend. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror hit that pushes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio sets two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, carrying a evergreen supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is selling as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both players and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around canon, and monster craft, elements that can accelerate large-format demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror driven by minute detail and period language, this time circling werewolf lore. The imprint has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is positive.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre entries head to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a cadence that maximizes both initial urgency and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video will mix outside acquisitions with global pickups and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library pulls, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to sustain interest on overall cume. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix originals and festival additions, finalizing horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops releases with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a one-two of precision theatrical plays and accelerated platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a selective basis. The platform has proven amenable to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 arc 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 straightforward: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, recalibrated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas corridor to increase reach. That positioning has been successful for director-led genre with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception allows. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using precision theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate tips toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap marquee value. The concern, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to pitch each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is centering character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French sensibility from a rising filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and director-driven titles keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the deal build is familiar enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night turnout.

Recent comps clarify the model. In 2023, a theater-first model that respected streaming windows did not preclude a day-date move from succeeding when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror popped in premium formats. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they pivot perspective and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot consecutively, lets marketing to tie installments through personae and themes and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

Technique and craft currents

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind these films hint at a continued lean toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that leans on mood and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-referential reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature craft and set design, which work nicely for convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel must-have. Look for trailers that elevate pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that shine in top rooms.

Calendar cadence

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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid headline IP. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tonal variety creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Late winter and spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with news fan warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Back half into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited pre-release reveals that center concept over reveals.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card spend.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose 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 mourning man’s algorithmic partner becomes something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

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 encounter a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: fog-and-fear adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss push to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance turns and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to terror, founded on Cronin’s hands-on craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting piece that filters its scares through a youth’s volatile inner lens. Rating: pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A genre lampoon that lampoons present-day genre chatter and true crime fascinations. Rating: pending. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites bursts, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further reopens, with a young family caught in residual nightmares. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: closely held. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in progress. 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-accurate language and ancient menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026, why now

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or reshuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming placements. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

The slot calculus is real. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, offering breathing room for genre entries that can command a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will stack across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, horror movies then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper chase 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 use those gaps. 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. Expect a healthy 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.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, 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 preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to seed 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 tactility, sonics, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand equity where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.