Ancient Evil Reawakens within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding supernatural thriller, rolling out October 2025 across global platforms

This eerie supernatural thriller from dramatist / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an prehistoric dread when guests become victims in a diabolical game. Dropping on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing story of resilience and old world terror that will alter fear-driven cinema this Halloween season. Brought to life by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and immersive feature follows five characters who arise confined in a isolated shack under the malevolent influence of Kyra, a possessed female overtaken by a prehistoric religious nightmare. Brace yourself to be seized by a visual ride that unites raw fear with spiritual backstory, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a time-honored trope in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is turned on its head when the entities no longer come outside their bodies, but rather inside them. This depicts the most terrifying part of all involved. The result is a bone-chilling cognitive warzone where the suspense becomes a unyielding contest between right and wrong.


In a remote woodland, five young people find themselves isolated under the unholy dominion and infestation of a secretive apparition. As the characters becomes vulnerable to break her grasp, left alone and tormented by spirits ungraspable, they are cornered to encounter their inner demons while the time ruthlessly winds toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia swells and links collapse, driving each individual to rethink their personhood and the notion of self-determination itself. The intensity magnify with every heartbeat, delivering a terror ride that marries ghostly evil with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to awaken pure dread, an malevolence that predates humanity, influencing emotional vulnerability, and highlighting a force that redefines identity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra called for internalizing something beyond human emotion. She is uninformed until the invasion happens, and that transformation is deeply unsettling because it is so internal.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for home viewing beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure horror lovers internationally can engage with this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first preview, which has earned over a viral response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, presenting the nightmare to global fright lovers.


Join this heart-stopping voyage through terror. Face *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to uncover these unholy truths about human nature.


For sneak peeks, on-set glimpses, and press updates from those who lived it, follow @YACFilm across entertainment pages and visit youngandcursed.com.





American horror’s watershed moment: the 2025 season stateside slate integrates archetypal-possession themes, indie terrors, in parallel with tentpole growls

Kicking off with pressure-cooker survival tales drawn from ancient scripture and extending to IP renewals plus pointed art-house angles, 2025 looks like the most textured in tandem with tactically planned year of the last decade.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. top-tier distributors are anchoring the year with familiar IP, while streamers saturate the fall with new voices and ancestral chills. In the indie lane, festival-forward creators is riding the echoes of 2024’s record festival wave. As Halloween stays the prime week, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, but this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

Universal fires the first shot with a big gambit: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. targeting mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Steered by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

At summer’s close, Warner’s schedule releases the last chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the memorable motifs return: nostalgic menace, trauma driven plotting, plus otherworld rules that chill. The ante is higher this round, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It arrives in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story featuring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held 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 menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is an astute call. No heavy handed lore. No series drag. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are more runway than museum.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Heritage Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Signals and Trends

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror reemerges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Autumn density and winter pivot

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. 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. 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.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The 2026 terror slate: next chapters, new stories, in tandem with A busy Calendar Built For chills

Dek The emerging scare slate builds from the jump with a January cluster, following that rolls through summer, and continuing into the holiday stretch, combining name recognition, untold stories, and smart counterplay. Major distributors and platforms are embracing responsible budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and short-form initiatives that shape these releases into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the consistent lever in studio slates, a pillar that can lift when it catches and still insulate the drawdown when it underperforms. After 2023 reconfirmed for greenlighters that low-to-mid budget pictures can command cultural conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with visionary-driven titles and word-of-mouth wins. The run moved into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is space for many shades, from franchise continuations to original one-offs that translate worldwide. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that seems notably aligned across the industry, with strategic blocks, a spread of brand names and fresh ideas, and a revived attention on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and SVOD.

Insiders argue the space now behaves like a versatile piece on the grid. The genre can debut on virtually any date, yield a easy sell for spots and TikTok spots, and outpace with crowds that appear on opening previews and keep coming through the follow-up frame if the movie connects. On the heels of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 pattern telegraphs comfort in that playbook. The year kicks off with a crowded January run, then taps spring and early summer for contrast, while clearing room for a fall corridor that extends to All Hallows period and beyond. The schedule also includes the greater integration of indie distributors and streamers that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and scale up at the inflection point.

A companion trend is series management across interlocking continuities and storied titles. Studio teams are not just turning out another sequel. They are setting up lineage with a specialness, whether that is a logo package that indicates a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that anchors a new entry to a first wave. At the same time, the helmers behind the top original plays are returning to hands-on technique, real effects and place-driven backdrops. That convergence gives 2026 a strong blend of home base and unexpected turns, which is the formula for international play.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight moves 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 spine, angling it as both a relay and a origin-leaning character-centered film. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the artistic posture signals a fan-service aware framework without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Expect a marketing push driven by heritage visuals, early character teases, and a rollout cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is big-screen 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 partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will chase mass reach through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format inviting quick shifts to whatever dominates the conversation that spring.

Universal has three specific releases. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is simple, tragic, and high-concept: a grieving man activates an intelligent companion that unfolds into a fatal companion. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to echo strange in-person beats and micro spots that interlaces love and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a public title to become an teaser payoff closer to the first look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s work are marketed as signature events, with a teaser that reveals little and a later trailer push that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor offers Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a gnarly, physical-effects centered aesthetic can feel elevated on a controlled budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror shot that leans hard into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio rolls out two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, extending a evergreen supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is selling 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 sharper mandate to serve both longtime followers and fresh viewers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around environmental design, and creature effects, elements that can increase premium format interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in rigorous craft and period language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already locked the day for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is warm.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform tactics for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s horror titles head to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that fortifies both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the later window. Prime Video pairs acquired titles with global pickups and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their edges in back-catalog play, using seasonal hubs, October hubs, and curated strips to maximize the tail on aggregate take. Netflix stays opportunistic about in-house releases and festival buys, timing horror entries closer to launch and making event-like go-lives with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a hybrid of precision theatrical plays and short jumps to platform that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a curated basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to pick up select projects with name filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for platform stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 sequence with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is clear: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, refined for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then working the December frame to open out. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception prompts. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By skew, 2026 tips toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap brand equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand wear. The near-term solution is to present each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is leading with relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-accented approach from a emerging director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the packaging is anchored enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night turnout.

The last three-year set clarify the logic. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that observed windows did not deter a day-date try from paying off when the brand was big. In 2024, auteur craft get redirected here horror surged in PLF. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they shift POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters lensed back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through personae and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long breaks.

Craft and creative trends

The creative meetings behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued tilt toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that highlights aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft coverage before rolling out a first look that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature work and production design, which align with convention activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel necessary. Look for trailers that center disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that shine in top rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is heavy. 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 foggy reset amid heftier brand moves. 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 real, but the range of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth spreads.

February through May prepare summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a opaque tease strategy and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and holiday card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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 be swallowed by a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her abrasive boss push to survive on a desolate island as the power balance of power tilts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

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 vision that returns the monster to chill, based on Cronin’s physical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting story that frames the panic through a minor’s shifting personal vantage. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A satire sequel that satirizes today’s horror trends and true-crime manias. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 surges, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further extends again, with a another family tethered to older hauntings. Rating: not yet rated. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: pending. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward true survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: forthcoming. Production: ongoing. 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 antique diction and elemental menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces organize this lineup. First, production that eased or shuffled in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on meme-ready beats from test screenings, precision scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Calendar math also matters. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will compete across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like 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 materiality, sonics, 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.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is recognizable IP where it plays, auteur intent where it matters, 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.