Primeval Horror Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling feature, premiering Oct 2025 on top digital platforms

This blood-curdling paranormal horror tale from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an timeless horror when newcomers become puppets in a demonic contest. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing journey of survival and mythic evil that will reshape terror storytelling this scare season. Guided by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and eerie story follows five people who are stirred isolated in a wilderness-bound cottage under the aggressive manipulation of Kyra, a cursed figure dominated by a biblical-era sacred-era entity. Ready yourself to be shaken by a audio-visual display that combines raw fear with biblical origins, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a time-honored fixture in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is reimagined when the presences no longer manifest from an outside force, but rather from their psyche. This represents the most primal dimension of the victims. The result is a riveting spiritual tug-of-war where the intensity becomes a perpetual contest between heaven and hell.


In a isolated wild, five figures find themselves marooned under the malevolent presence and possession of a unidentified person. As the team becomes defenseless to combat her curse, abandoned and attacked by presences beyond reason, they are forced to stand before their core terrors while the final hour relentlessly winds toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety builds and friendships erode, pushing each member to reflect on their values and the foundation of personal agency itself. The threat mount with every passing moment, delivering a cinematic nightmare that integrates demonic fright with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to tap into primal fear, an curse that predates humanity, manifesting in our weaknesses, and questioning a will that threatens selfhood when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra involved tapping into something deeper than fear. She is insensitive until the demon emerges, and that transformation is deeply unsettling because it is so unshielded.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—allowing horror lovers in all regions can engage with this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first preview, which has garnered over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, presenting the nightmare to lovers of terror across nations.


Be sure to catch this haunted descent into darkness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to witness these haunting secrets about the soul.


For director insights, on-set glimpses, and updates from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursed across your socials and visit our film’s homepage.





American horror’s major pivot: 2025 for genre fans U.S. Slate Mixes biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, in parallel with series shake-ups

Ranging from survivor-centric dread rooted in ancient scripture through to installment follow-ups together with pointed art-house angles, 2025 appears poised to be the genre’s most multifaceted combined with intentionally scheduled year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. top-tier distributors stabilize the year with known properties, at the same time streaming platforms pack the fall with discovery plays alongside archetypal fear. On the festival side, the independent cohort is buoyed by the backdraft of 2024’s record festival wave. Since Halloween is the prized date, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, yet in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are intentional, which means 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

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

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s pipeline opens the year with a confident swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. arriving mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Under Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s schedule releases the last chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time, the stakes are raised, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, courting teens and the thirty something base. It drops in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Plays: Economy, maximum dread

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a body horror duet fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story featuring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. From writer director 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. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No swollen lore. No IP hangover. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

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

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, under Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

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

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The 2026 scare Year Ahead: entries, original films, paired with A jammed Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek: The current genre cycle lines up right away with a January glut, subsequently runs through the warm months, and straight through the holiday frame, balancing legacy muscle, new concepts, and data-minded counterweight. Studios with streamers are embracing efficient budgets, box-office-first windows, and short-form initiatives that frame these pictures into water-cooler talk.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror sector has shown itself to be the most reliable release in studio slates, a category that can accelerate when it catches and still cushion the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reassured top brass that efficiently budgeted pictures can dominate cultural conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with high-profile filmmaker pieces and surprise hits. The trend flowed into the 2025 frame, where returns and prestige plays highlighted there is appetite for varied styles, from continued chapters to director-led originals that translate worldwide. The upshot for 2026 is a schedule that shows rare alignment across distributors, with intentional bunching, a spread of marquee IP and original hooks, and a refocused priority on box-office windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and SVOD.

Buyers contend the genre now functions as a plug-and-play option on the calendar. The genre can debut on most weekends, offer a clean hook for ad units and platform-native cuts, and punch above weight with audiences that lean in on advance nights and hold through the second weekend if the entry connects. Following a work stoppage lag, the 2026 mapping underscores faith in that playbook. The calendar kicks off with a heavy January window, then primes spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while making space for a late-year stretch that extends to the fright window and afterwards. The gridline also spotlights the continuing integration of boutique distributors and subscription services that can grow from platform, build word of mouth, and widen at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is legacy care across brand ecosystems and legacy franchises. Distribution groups are not just pushing another chapter. They are setting up continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a logo package that telegraphs a tonal shift or a cast configuration that binds a new installment to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the creative teams behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into in-camera technique, practical gags and distinct locales. That fusion provides the 2026 slate a strong blend of assurance and freshness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline pushes that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the core, presenting it as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode character piece. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance suggests a heritage-honoring framework without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive centered on classic imagery, intro reveals, and a tease cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will lean on. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will build wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick switches to whatever owns pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tidy, soulful, and high-concept: a grieving man installs an artificial companion that evolves into a killer companion. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to reprise strange in-person beats and short reels that hybridizes devotion and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a official title to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele projects are marketed as director events, with a minimalist tease and a second wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date allows Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on 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 directs, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has demonstrated that a visceral, makeup-driven treatment can feel top-tier on a tight budget. Expect a red-band summer horror shot that leans hard into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio mounts two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a steady supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is selling as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both players and casuals. The fall slot offers Sony space to build promo materials around world-building, and monster design, elements that can boost IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror defined by textural authenticity and textual fidelity, this time set against lycan legends. The company has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Windowing plans in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate move to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a structure that boosts both week-one demand and sign-up spikes in the tail. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with world buys and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in back-catalog play, using editorial spots, spooky hubs, and curated strips to prolong the run on overall cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about first-party entries and festival grabs, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a one-two of focused cinema runs and quick platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown a willingness to pick up select projects with name filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly activity when the genre conversation intensifies.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 pipeline with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is simple: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, reimagined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a cinema-first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then using the December frame to increase reach. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using select theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their community.

Known brands versus new stories

By number, the 2026 slate bends toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap brand equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is overexposure. The pragmatic answer is to brand each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is centering character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh ground-up build for More about the author Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French sensibility from a hot helmer. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the configuration is grounded enough to accelerate early sales and early previews.

Rolling three-year comps contextualize the plan. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that honored streaming windows did not prevent a parallel release from winning when the brand was sticky. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror popped in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they rotate perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters produced back-to-back, permits marketing to interlace chapters through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets in-market without extended gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft rooms behind these films point to a continued shift toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that emphasizes aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that leans on mood over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for red-band excess, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and drives shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta inflection that centers its original star. Resident Evil will live or die on monster aesthetics and world-building, which match well with con floor moments and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that land in big rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is full. 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 macro-brand pushes. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the range of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth persists.

February through May seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now can handle 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can play 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.

August and September into October leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a late-September window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited teasers that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card spend.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s artificial companion escalates into something seductively lethal. 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: aura-driven 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 abrasive boss battle to survive on a desolate island as the chain of command shifts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 fresh reimagining that returns the monster to menace, built on Cronin’s on-set craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting tale that leverages the fear of a child’s tricky senses. Rating: TBA. Production: locked. 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 comic send-up that teases modern genre fads and true-crime manias. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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: TBA. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a fresh family caught in returning horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: closely held. Rating: to be announced. Production: proceeding. 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-precise speech and primordial menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026, why now

Three workable forces structure this lineup. First, production that stalled or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage turnkey scare beats from test screenings, managed scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

The slot calculus is real. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will cluster across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where value-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 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 tempo and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, right-sized allotments, 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 detail, sound field, and imagery 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

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand heft where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the chills sell the seats.