Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 on premium platforms

A spine-tingling spiritual suspense story from scriptwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an timeless horror when newcomers become puppets in a supernatural trial. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish depiction of staying alive and age-old darkness that will remodel genre cinema this scare season. Visualized by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and emotionally thick feature follows five individuals who awaken caught in a wooded shack under the oppressive power of Kyra, a possessed female possessed by a legendary scriptural evil. Anticipate to be gripped by a immersive journey that harmonizes primitive horror with biblical origins, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a legendary trope in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is turned on its head when the presences no longer appear outside the characters, but rather from their psyche. This symbolizes the most primal part of the protagonists. The result is a psychologically brutal psychological battle where the intensity becomes a merciless struggle between light and darkness.


In a remote forest, five campers find themselves isolated under the possessive dominion and haunting of a haunted person. As the companions becomes unresisting to break her power, detached and targeted by creatures unnamable, they are made to encounter their worst nightmares while the deathwatch relentlessly runs out toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia surges and relationships dissolve, requiring each protagonist to contemplate their values and the notion of autonomy itself. The tension escalate with every instant, delivering a nightmarish journey that harmonizes unearthly horror with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to draw upon deep fear, an curse born of forgotten ages, working through psychological breaks, and exposing a darkness that questions who we are when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra demanded embodying something outside normal anguish. She is ignorant until the invasion happens, and that evolution is shocking because it is so personal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for digital release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—allowing customers across the world can engage with this haunted release.


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


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, giving access to the movie to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this bone-rattling exploration of dread. Confront *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to acknowledge these fearful discoveries about free will.


For sneak peeks, making-of footage, and news from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across your favorite networks and visit our horror hub.





Modern horror’s Turning Point: calendar year 2025 stateside slate Mixes ancient-possession motifs, festival-born jolts, set against franchise surges

Spanning fight-to-live nightmare stories infused with ancient scripture to brand-name continuations in concert with incisive indie visions, 2025 is emerging as horror’s most layered paired with calculated campaign year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. the big studios set cornerstones via recognizable brands, even as premium streamers pack the fall with unboxed visions and old-world menace. On the festival side, independent banners is carried on the momentum of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, but this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are targeted, thus 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige fear returns

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s pipeline begins the calendar with a confident swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. From director Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. landing in mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Led by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner lot delivers the closing chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson resumes command, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: 70s style chill, trauma as theme, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. Here the stakes rise, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, bridging teens and legacy players. It opens in December, cornering year end horror.

Platform Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a close quarters body horror study starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also rising is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, 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 horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in 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 looks like sharp programming. No bloated mythology. No IP hangover. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. 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.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

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

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, from 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.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trends Worth Watching

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror returns
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forward View: Fall stack and winter swing card

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The upcoming Horror cycle: brand plays, original films, paired with A Crowded Calendar designed for screams

Dek The arriving terror slate packs right away with a January cluster, subsequently flows through the summer months, and pushing into the holidays, mixing IP strength, untold stories, and strategic counterprogramming. Major distributors and platforms are embracing lean spends, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that elevate the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The genre has shown itself to be the bankable tool in release plans, a category that can scale when it lands and still hedge the downside when it falls short. After 2023 signaled to executives that low-to-mid budget horror vehicles can lead pop culture, 2024 held pace with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The energy carried into 2025, where re-entries and elevated films confirmed there is an opening for different modes, from franchise continuations to original one-offs that translate worldwide. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a programming that is strikingly coherent across the field, with purposeful groupings, a spread of legacy names and new packages, and a revived priority on theatrical windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium digital rental and digital services.

Studio leaders note the space now performs as a wildcard on the slate. The genre can debut on virtually any date, offer a simple premise for trailers and vertical videos, and outstrip with ticket buyers that line up on early shows and hold through the next pass if the film pays off. Coming out of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 layout demonstrates belief in that model. The calendar kicks off with a crowded January corridor, then exploits spring through early summer for genre counterpoints, while carving room for a fall corridor that flows toward Halloween and into the next week. The program also illustrates the greater integration of specialty distributors and subscription services that can grow from platform, create conversation, and move wide at the precise moment.

A reinforcing pattern is IP cultivation across interlocking continuities and storied titles. Studio teams are not just mounting another continuation. They are working to present threaded continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a brandmark that broadcasts a tonal shift or a talent selection that binds a new installment to a classic era. At the alongside this, the filmmakers behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to material texture, practical effects and vivid settings. That blend delivers 2026 a solid mix of trust and novelty, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile releases that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the core, framing it as both a legacy handover and a heritage-centered character-centered film. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the authorial approach conveys a memory-charged strategy without recycling the last two entries’ sibling arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive leaning on recognizable motifs, character-first teases, and a two-beat trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will double down on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will go after large awareness through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format supporting quick reframes to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three unique plays. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is simple, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man onboards an synthetic partner that unfolds into a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo odd public stunts and micro spots that blurs affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title drop to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His entries are presented as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later trailer push that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives Universal room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has proven that a in-your-face, hands-on effects aesthetic can feel cinematic on a lean spend. Position this as a hard-R summer horror blast that centers worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, preserving a evergreen supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is describing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both core fans and newcomers. The fall slot allows Sony to build promo materials around world-building, and creature effects, elements that can increase premium screens and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by historical precision and dialect, this time driven by werewolf stories. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

Where the platforms fit in

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre entries shift to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that enhances both initial urgency and subscriber lifts in the downstream. Prime Video blends licensed films with worldwide buys and brief theater runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog engagement, using curated hubs, October hubs, and curated strips to sustain interest on aggregate take. Netflix remains opportunistic about original films and festival pickups, finalizing horror entries closer to drop and eventizing arrivals with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a laddered of limited theatrical footprints and swift platform pivots that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a per-project basis. The platform has indicated interest to purchase select projects with acclaimed directors or name-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for retention when the genre conversation swells.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 lane with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is no-nonsense: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the back half.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas corridor to broaden. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception warrants. Do not be surprised by 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 parallel, using targeted theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Series vs standalone

By volume, 2026 bends toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate name recognition. The caveat, as ever, is overexposure. The practical approach is to frame each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is spotlighting character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the packaging is known enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent comps announce the plan. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that maintained windows did not obstruct a same-day experiment from paying off when the brand was strong. In 2024, precision craft horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reorient and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, allows marketing to interlace chapters through relationships and themes and to sustain campaign assets without extended gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind the year’s horror signal a continued turn toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that leans on aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in feature stories and artisan spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that elevates tone over story, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for red-band excess, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and gathers shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a self-aware reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature design and production design, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel key. Look for trailers that underscore razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that explode in larger rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is full. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid headline IP. The month buttons 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 thick, but the palette of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Early-year through spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a early fall window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a mystery-first teaser plan and limited plot reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card spend.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s founding notes. 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 devastated man’s digital partner unfolds into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 demanding boss scramble to survive on a rugged island as the control dynamic flips and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to chill, shaped by Cronin’s hands-on craft and oozing 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 narrative that interrogates the fright of a child’s tricky read. Rating: forthcoming. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-financed and A-list fronted ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles contemporary horror memes and true-crime obsessions. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. 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 breaks out, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family bound to residual nightmares. Rating: undetermined. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A new start designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: not yet rated. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBD. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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-specific language and primordial menace. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the moment is 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces structure this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous 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 releases. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine clippable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will line up across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 surprise-hit pursuit 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 maximize those pockets. 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 Get More Info for an indie breakout.

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

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, 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, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, soundscape, and framing 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand gravity where needed, creative ambition where it counts, 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.