Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a nerve shredding chiller, launching October 2025 across top digital platforms

One unnerving spiritual fear-driven tale from cinematographer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an ancient terror when newcomers become conduits in a supernatural struggle. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing story of continuance and ancient evil that will alter genre cinema this spooky time. Crafted by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and claustrophobic story follows five unknowns who arise sealed in a unreachable house under the unfriendly manipulation of Kyra, a female lead overtaken by a ancient scriptural evil. Be warned to be absorbed by a big screen presentation that combines primitive horror with biblical origins, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a iconic theme in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is twisted when the forces no longer form from external sources, but rather deep within. This mirrors the darkest layer of each of them. The result is a intense mind game where the drama becomes a constant push-pull between virtue and vice.


In a remote backcountry, five friends find themselves cornered under the fiendish sway and control of a uncanny apparition. As the team becomes defenseless to fight her dominion, abandoned and tormented by entities mind-shattering, they are driven to stand before their raw vulnerabilities while the deathwatch without pause draws closer toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety rises and ties shatter, forcing each member to rethink their being and the nature of liberty itself. The consequences rise with every heartbeat, delivering a horror experience that harmonizes mystical fear with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to draw upon pure dread, an malevolence before modern man, emerging via emotional vulnerability, and navigating a being that erodes the self when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra required summoning something deeper than fear. She is oblivious until the takeover begins, and that flip is eerie because it is so private.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be released for streaming beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving horror lovers around the globe can witness this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its original promo, which has pulled in over 100K plays.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, taking the terror to fans of fear everywhere.


Witness this mind-warping descent into darkness. Explore *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to experience these chilling revelations about mankind.


For previews, set experiences, and insider scoops from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit the film’s website.





Horror’s sea change: 2025 for genre fans U.S. calendar fuses ancient-possession motifs, art-house nightmares, paired with returning-series thunder

Beginning with last-stand terror steeped in mythic scripture and including series comebacks as well as sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 stands to become the richest in tandem with blueprinted year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. leading studios are anchoring the year using marquee IP, at the same time SVOD players pack the fall with emerging auteurs and archetypal fear. Meanwhile, the independent cohort is buoyed by the uplift of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Elevated fear reclaims ground

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

the Universal banner opens the year with a marquee bet: a contemporary Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. From director Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. arriving mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Steered by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer eases, Warner Bros. Pictures releases the last chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re boards, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: throwback unease, trauma as theme, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, courting teens and the thirty something base. It hits in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Digital Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

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

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a room scale body horror descent fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, 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. Before a platform date is locked, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable featuring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

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

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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 looks like sharp programming. No bloated canon. No series drag. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

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

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced 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

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, under Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Emerging Currents

Myth turns mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror retakes ground
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

What’s Next: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. 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 oncoming Horror release year: brand plays, Originals, And A Crowded Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek: The arriving horror calendar packs up front with a January wave, thereafter unfolds through the mid-year, and running into the December corridor, weaving marquee clout, new voices, and tactical counterweight. The big buyers and platforms are relying on cost discipline, theater-first strategies, and short-form initiatives that shape these pictures into four-quadrant talking points.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has established itself as the dependable play in annual schedules, a pillar that can surge when it performs and still safeguard the liability when it doesn’t. After 2023 re-taught strategy teams that low-to-mid budget scare machines can steer mainstream conversation, the following year sustained momentum with buzzy auteur projects and quiet over-performers. The energy pushed into 2025, where revivals and prestige plays signaled there is appetite for different modes, from continued chapters to non-IP projects that carry overseas. The takeaway for 2026 is a grid that appears tightly organized across the major shops, with defined corridors, a combination of household franchises and original hooks, and a renewed emphasis on release windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and home streaming.

Executives say the category now behaves like a fill-in ace on the rollout map. The genre can arrive on virtually any date, create a grabby hook for trailers and short-form placements, and over-index with demo groups that line up on previews Thursday and return through the follow-up frame if the release delivers. Exiting a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 plan shows assurance in that engine. The calendar gets underway with a heavy January schedule, then leans on spring and early summer for audience offsets, while keeping space for a September to October window that reaches into All Hallows period and into the next week. The layout also shows the expanded integration of specialty arms and platforms that can develop over weeks, generate chatter, and move wide at the precise moment.

A further high-level trend is franchise tending across shared IP webs and storied titles. The companies are not just releasing another entry. They are looking to package connection with a heightened moment, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a reframed mood or a casting choice that connects a upcoming film to a first wave. At the meanwhile, the writer-directors behind the high-profile originals are championing material texture, practical effects and concrete locations. That interplay yields the 2026 slate a confident blend of familiarity and novelty, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount plants an early flag with two front-of-slate releases that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the center, marketing it as both a passing of the torch and a back-to-basics character-centered film. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach announces a fan-service aware bent without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Count on a promo wave built on recognizable motifs, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 linchpin the campaign will stress. As a counterweight in summer, this one will go after broad awareness through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick turns to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three differentiated plays. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is efficient, tragic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an intelligent companion that evolves into a perilous partner. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to echo strange in-person beats and short reels that mixes companionship and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s releases are presented as filmmaker events, with a teaser that holds back and a later trailer push that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has long shown that a blood-soaked, makeup-driven treatment can feel deluxe on a disciplined budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror surge that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio deploys two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is presenting as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both loyalists and curious audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build materials around mythos, and creature work, elements that can lift premium booking interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes 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 rooted in minute detail and language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus Features has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is warm.

Platform lanes and windowing

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s slate window into copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a stair-step that expands both premiere heat and subscriber lifts in the downstream. Prime Video balances licensed titles with world buys and brief theater runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog engagement, using curated hubs, October hubs, and curated strips to sustain interest on the horror cume. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival grabs, confirming horror entries tight to release and coalescing around releases with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a one-two of tailored theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown appetite to purchase select projects with top-tier auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 sequence with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is direct: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, recalibrated for modern mix 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 hinted a standard theatrical run for the title, an positive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday slot to expand. That positioning has shown results for auteur horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception warrants. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

Legacy titles versus originals

By proportion, 2026 bends toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit marquee value. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The workable fix is to market each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is underscoring character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is promising a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the cast-creatives package is grounded enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and early previews.

Three-year comps contextualize the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a day-and-date experiment from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they change perspective and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, enables marketing to cross-link entries through personae and themes and to keep assets alive without extended gaps.

Craft and creative trends

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate hint at a continued emphasis on in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that highlights mood and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and artisan spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that leans on mood over plot, a move that has played for Source the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature design and production design, which match well with convention activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel irresistible. Look for trailers that spotlight razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is stacked. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid marquee brands. 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 stiff, but the palette of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth endures.

February through May prepare summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now hosts 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited plot reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s AI companion turns into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: mood-led adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss battle to survive on a desolate island as the power balance upends and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to terror, rooted in Cronin’s tactile craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 intimate haunting premise that toys with the terror of a child’s inconsistent perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody return that targets modern genre fads and true-crime obsessions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new clan tethered to long-buried horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in true survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: closely held. Rating: to be announced. Production: active. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and bone-deep menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces organize this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-sequenced in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can control a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will stack 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 use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

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

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

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

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, acoustics, and visual design 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

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand equity where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.