Primordial Evil Surfaces in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling feature, premiering Oct 2025 on major platforms

An terrifying otherworldly suspense film from screenwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an long-buried evil when strangers become proxies in a dark ritual. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing account of endurance and ancient evil that will reshape horror this ghoul season. Crafted by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and shadowy cinema piece follows five young adults who come to stuck in a wilderness-bound shack under the dark manipulation of Kyra, a female lead inhabited by a 2,000-year-old biblical force. Get ready to be captivated by a visual presentation that integrates instinctive fear with timeless legends, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a historical tradition in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is reversed when the entities no longer manifest from external sources, but rather inside them. This embodies the grimmest shade of the players. The result is a gripping mental war where the drama becomes a unyielding struggle between righteousness and malevolence.


In a forsaken wild, five figures find themselves isolated under the fiendish aura and domination of a shadowy female figure. As the companions becomes unable to reject her control, disconnected and tormented by forces beyond comprehension, they are confronted to acknowledge their worst nightmares while the hours relentlessly runs out toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear deepens and connections crack, prompting each cast member to reflect on their identity and the foundation of conscious will itself. The stakes climb with every beat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that integrates unearthly horror with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to tap into raw dread, an curse that predates humanity, channeling itself through human fragility, and confronting a being that challenges autonomy when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra asked for exploring something far beyond human desperation. She is unseeing until the haunting manifests, and that turn is soul-crushing because it is so visceral.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be released for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure fans no matter where they are can enjoy this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first trailer, which has collected over notable views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, giving access to the movie to fans of fear everywhere.


Avoid skipping this unforgettable path of possession. Explore *Young & Cursed* this launch day to dive into these spiritual awakenings about the psyche.


For cast commentary, special features, and social posts from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across entertainment pages and visit our spooky domain.





Today’s horror decisive shift: 2025 in focus U.S. release slate interlaces ancient-possession motifs, indie terrors, together with series shake-ups

From last-stand terror drawn from biblical myth through to brand-name continuations paired with acutely observed indies, 2025 looks like the genre’s most multifaceted plus deliberate year in ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. leading studios stabilize the year by way of signature titles, in tandem premium streamers load up the fall with discovery plays alongside legend-coded dread. At the same time, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is propelled by the echoes from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A fat September–October lane is customary now, notably this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are surgical, so 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Elevated fear reclaims ground

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal opens the year with an audacious swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and 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 joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Directed by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer fades, the Warner Bros. banner unveils the final movement within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. While the template is known, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re engages, and the tone that worked before is intact: 70s style chill, trauma centered writing, and eerie supernatural logic. The bar is raised this go, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The follow up digs further into canon, grows the animatronic horror lineup, courting teens and the thirty something base. It arrives in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Originals: Economy, maximum dread

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror duet starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with 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 all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 an astute call. No bloated canon. No sequel clutter. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

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

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Series Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror comes roaring back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

What’s Next: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The 2026 spook slate: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, alongside A packed Calendar tailored for shocks

Dek: The current genre year builds from day one with a January bottleneck, after that unfolds through the mid-year, and running into the festive period, mixing brand heft, novel approaches, and smart release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are leaning into mid-range economics, theater-first strategies, and buzz-forward plans that position these offerings into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This space has grown into the sturdy release in release plans, a lane that can spike when it clicks and still safeguard the liability when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for top brass that efficiently budgeted pictures can steer social chatter, 2024 continued the surge with signature-voice projects and unexpected risers. The carry flowed into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and arthouse crossovers showed there is a market for many shades, from continued chapters to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The sum for the 2026 slate is a lineup that shows rare alignment across the industry, with intentional bunching, a pairing of household franchises and original hooks, and a re-energized strategy on release windows that feed downstream value on PVOD and streaming.

Planners observe the category now functions as a plug-and-play option on the rollout map. The genre can debut on virtually any date, furnish a clear pitch for marketing and vertical videos, and over-index with viewers that show up on Thursday previews and stay strong through the subsequent weekend if the film pays off. Post a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 configuration demonstrates assurance in that engine. The slate opens with a stacked January band, then plants flags in spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while clearing room for a fall cadence that flows toward spooky season and past the holiday. The layout also underscores the continuing integration of specialized labels and platforms that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and widen at the sweet spot.

A second macro trend is brand strategy across brand ecosystems and veteran brands. The players are not just greenlighting another continuation. They are moving to present story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a new vibe or a casting pivot that binds a new installment to a initial period. At the parallel to that, the auteurs behind the most buzzed-about originals are championing tactile craft, physical gags and concrete locations. That blend yields 2026 a lively combination of home base and unexpected turns, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two big-ticket pushes that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the focus, marketing it as both a legacy handover and a heritage-centered character study. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the tonal posture announces a heritage-honoring strategy without recycling the last two entries’ sibling arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive driven by iconic art, initial cast looks, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reignites 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 as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format supporting quick reframes to whatever shapes the discourse that spring.

Universal has three differentiated releases. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is simple, grief-rooted, and concept-forward: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that mutates into a killer companion. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to reprise uncanny-valley stunts and short-form creative that interweaves affection and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for have a peek at these guys a official title to become an PR pop closer to the teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are marketed as director events, with a concept-forward tease and a second trailer wave that shape mood without giving away the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor affords Universal to own 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has shown that a blood-soaked, on-set effects led method can feel premium on a middle budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror shock that centers global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a trusty supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is positioning as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both franchise faithful and novices. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can stoke deluxe auditorium demand and convention buzz.

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 centered on careful craft and period language, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is robust.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre slate head to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ladder that amplifies both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the after-window. Prime Video blends licensed content with global originals and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog engagement, using timely promos, Halloween hubs, and featured rows to sustain interest on 2026 genre cume. Netflix retains agility about in-house releases and festival grabs, dating horror entries tight to release and eventizing premieres with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a one-two of targeted cinema placements and quick platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has proven amenable to pick up select projects with award winners or marquee packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation intensifies.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 corridor with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is clean: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, updated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a big-screen first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the fall weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festival season if the cut is ready, then working the holiday corridor to expand. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-first horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception supports. Anticipate 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 select theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchises versus originals

By tilt, 2026 leans toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on franchise value. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to pitch each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French sensibility from a rising filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the team and cast is assuring enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday-night crowds.

The last three-year set contextualize the strategy. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept streaming intact did not hamper a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror surged in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they pivot perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries 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 back-to-back, permits marketing to thread films through character web and themes and to keep assets alive without long breaks.

Technique and craft currents

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind these films forecast a continued shift toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that highlights atmosphere and fear rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in craft profiles and guild coverage before rolling out a mood teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta pivot that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature and environment design, which fit with fan conventions and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that land in big rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is loaded. 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 somber counterpoint amid big-brand pushes. The month finishes 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 formidable, but the range of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late winter and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a late-September window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited pre-release reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card spend.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s synthetic partner evolves into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss work to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power upends and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to fear, rooted in Cronin’s tactile craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting chiller that manipulates the unease of a child’s tricky POV. Rating: pending. Production: finished. 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 back in the creative mix. Logline: {A satirical comeback that riffs on of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fervors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: principal photography set for 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 global twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further opens again, with a different family lashed to returning horrors. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on classic survival-horror tone over action-forward bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: closely held. Rating: forthcoming. Production: proceeding. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 elemental menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the moment is 2026

Three pragmatic forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage meme-ready beats from test screenings, select scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, 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 beat and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound, and visuals that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is IP strength where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for 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, produce clean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the gasps sell the seats.