Antediluvian Evil awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding feature, rolling out October 2025 on major streaming services

A haunting spectral fear-driven tale from scriptwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an timeless nightmare when unrelated individuals become tokens in a malevolent conflict. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping account of struggle and primordial malevolence that will alter fear-driven cinema this October. Produced by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and claustrophobic suspense flick follows five figures who find themselves stranded in a hidden shelter under the aggressive grip of Kyra, a young woman dominated by a antiquated sacrosanct terror. Ready yourself to be enthralled by a cinematic journey that fuses visceral dread with spiritual backstory, arriving on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a time-honored fixture in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is redefined when the forces no longer come from elsewhere, but rather inside their minds. This suggests the most terrifying version of all involved. The result is a edge-of-seat mental war where the story becomes a intense clash between divinity and wickedness.


In a isolated no-man's-land, five figures find themselves contained under the dark control and haunting of a shadowy figure. As the youths becomes vulnerable to oppose her command, marooned and followed by creatures unimaginable, they are pushed to wrestle with their deepest fears while the time harrowingly pushes forward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread builds and friendships fracture, requiring each figure to scrutinize their being and the foundation of free will itself. The pressure amplify with every breath, delivering a scare-fueled ride that blends ghostly evil with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to draw upon deep fear, an evil rooted in antiquity, working through emotional vulnerability, and highlighting a curse that peels away humanity when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra asked for exploring something beyond human emotion. She is blind until the evil takes hold, and that flip is deeply unsettling because it is so private.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for on-demand beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing households across the world can get immersed in this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its initial teaser, which has racked up over massive response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, making the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Witness this mind-warping trip into the unknown. Stream *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to uncover these spiritual awakenings about the psyche.


For film updates, production insights, and social posts from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursed across fan hubs and visit the official movie site.





American horror’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 U.S. release slate braids together old-world possession, Indie Shockers, together with returning-series thunder

From survival horror saturated with near-Eastern lore and including canon extensions paired with surgical indie voices, 2025 looks like the genre’s most multifaceted along with tactically planned year in recent memory.

Call it full, but it is also focused. studio powerhouses lock in tentpoles with established lines, in parallel OTT services flood the fall with first-wave breakthroughs plus old-world menace. On the festival side, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the kinetic energy of 2024’s record festival wave. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and now, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are calculated, therefore 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Elevated fear reclaims ground

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s distribution arm sets the tone with a headline swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, inside today’s landscape. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. set for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. sets loose the finale from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: 70s style chill, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The stakes escalate here, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It arrives in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streamer Exclusives: Slim budgets, major punch

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a sealed box body horror arc starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by 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. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a smart play. No bloated canon. No sequel clutter. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

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

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Series Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

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

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, with Francis Lawrence directing, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

What to Watch

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror returns
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Season Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The new Horror Year Ahead: Sequels, universe starters, plus A stacked Calendar geared toward Scares

Dek The brand-new genre year crowds at the outset with a January glut, from there spreads through summer, and pushing into the year-end corridor, balancing series momentum, new concepts, and tactical offsets. The big buyers and platforms are prioritizing cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and social-driven marketing that pivot the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror has become the consistent counterweight in distribution calendars, a genre that can surge when it performs and still safeguard the drag when it does not. After 2023 demonstrated to strategy teams that efficiently budgeted chillers can own cultural conversation, the following year maintained heat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and surprise hits. The run extended into the 2025 frame, where reboots and awards-minded projects signaled there is appetite for varied styles, from legacy continuations to director-led originals that perform internationally. The end result for the 2026 slate is a slate that presents tight coordination across studios, with intentional bunching, a spread of marquee IP and novel angles, and a sharpened focus on exclusive windows that increase tail monetization on PVOD and subscription services.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now slots in as a plug-and-play option on the slate. Horror can debut on numerous frames, yield a clean hook for promo reels and short-form placements, and overperform with crowds that come out on previews Thursday and continue through the next pass if the title delivers. Emerging from a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 plan telegraphs confidence in that engine. The slate opens with a weighty January lineup, then targets spring into early summer for alternate plays, while holding room for a fall cadence that stretches into spooky season and past Halloween. The calendar also includes the expanded integration of specialty distributors and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, ignite recommendations, and widen at the right moment.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across shared universes and established properties. The companies are not just rolling another return. They are aiming to frame threaded continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a typeface approach that signals a tonal shift or a casting choice that links a next entry to a foundational era. At the parallel to that, the auteurs behind the most watched originals are leaning into practical craft, physical gags and concrete locations. That combination affords the 2026 slate a confident blend of assurance and freshness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount plants an early flag with two high-profile moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the heart, setting it up as both a relay and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the authorial approach hints at a nostalgia-forward approach without covering again the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Count on a promo wave anchored in legacy iconography, first images of characters, and a promo sequence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will spotlight. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will pursue large awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick reframes to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated pushes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, tragic, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an artificial companion that evolves into a killer companion. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to reprise viral uncanny stunts and quick hits that fuses attachment and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the initial tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later trailer push that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot opens a lane to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has proven that a in-your-face, practical-effects forward mix can feel prestige on a middle budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror blast that maximizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, extending a dependable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is positioning as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign pieces around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in minute detail and language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus’s team has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is favorable.

How the platforms plan to play it

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal titles flow to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that boosts both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the downstream. Prime Video pairs licensed content with worldwide entries and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in catalog discovery, using editorial spots, fright rows, and featured rows to maximize the tail on overall cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival buys, locking in horror entries toward the drop and staging as events launches with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a paired of tailored theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that converts WOM to subscribers. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a selective basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to invest in select projects with name filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 corridor with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is direct: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, recalibrated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday corridor to go wider. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception warrants. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using small theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on cultural cachet. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is bringing forward character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-tinted vision from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the package is known enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years announce the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that respected streaming windows did not hamper a dual release from succeeding when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror popped in PLF. 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 continues 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 in tandem, allows marketing to connect the chapters through personae and themes and to leave creative active without long gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind these films forecast a continued tilt toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that spotlights aura and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead press and guild coverage before rolling out a teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and creates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta refresh that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in con floor moments and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel key. Look for trailers that spotlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that benefit on big speakers.

How the year maps out

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the variety of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Q1 into Q2 prepare summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The 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 his comment is here tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

End of summer through fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a transitional slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited information drops that lean on concept not plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s artificial companion escalates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: gothic-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 prickly boss scramble to survive on a rugged island as the pecking order swivels and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fright, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting tale that leverages the fear of a child’s tricky impressions. Rating: forthcoming. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody return that skewers of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fervors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming slated 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 breaks out, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a different family anchored to long-buried horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in true survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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

Why this year, why now

Three operational forces frame this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-slotted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage meme-ready beats from test screenings, select scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Calendar math also matters. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can control a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

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

The sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-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 sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, 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 keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, sound field, and camera work 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 Is Well Positioned

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand equity where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the chills sell the seats.