Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 across top digital platforms

A unnerving otherworldly scare-fest from storyteller / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an timeless evil when outsiders become instruments in a dark ordeal. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping account of resilience and timeless dread that will redefine terror storytelling this October. Produced by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and gothic feature follows five figures who wake up stuck in a far-off shelter under the oppressive power of Kyra, a mysterious girl inhabited by a 2,000-year-old biblical force. Steel yourself to be enthralled by a theatrical outing that fuses instinctive fear with spiritual backstory, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a well-established concept in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is flipped when the fiends no longer descend beyond the self, but rather internally. This illustrates the most sinister element of the group. The result is a riveting emotional conflict where the events becomes a perpetual tug-of-war between purity and corruption.


In a remote wilderness, five teens find themselves sealed under the ghastly dominion and domination of a elusive woman. As the victims becomes powerless to oppose her influence, isolated and pursued by entities unimaginable, they are obligated to wrestle with their darkest emotions while the time unforgivingly ticks onward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear surges and ties crack, pressuring each cast member to evaluate their existence and the concept of autonomy itself. The cost climb with every heartbeat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that merges demonic fright with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to channel raw dread, an presence rooted in antiquity, influencing inner turmoil, and questioning a curse that tests the soul when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra meant evoking something darker than pain. She is ignorant until the entity awakens, and that transition is gut-wrenching because it is so internal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be released for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that customers internationally can be part of this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original promo, which has seen over a viral response.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, making the film to global fright lovers.


Avoid skipping this mind-warping spiral into evil. Enter *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to acknowledge these spiritual awakenings about the psyche.


For sneak peeks, on-set glimpses, and reveals from the creators, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across media channels and visit the movie portal.





Horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 in focus U.S. rollouts weaves legend-infused possession, underground frights, together with franchise surges

Spanning survivor-centric dread saturated with old testament echoes and including brand-name continuations plus keen independent perspectives, 2025 is shaping up as the most dimensioned along with tactically planned year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. Top studios hold down the year through proven series, while premium streamers crowd the fall with new perspectives alongside primordial unease. In the indie lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is riding the afterglow of a banner 2024 fest year. Since Halloween is the prized date, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, however this time, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are targeted, therefore 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige terror resurfaces

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s pipeline sets the tone with a headline swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. landing in mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule bows the concluding entry from its cornerstone horror IP: 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, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma as text, and eerie supernatural logic. The ante is higher this round, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The follow up digs further into canon, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, reaching teens and game grownups. It bows in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a body horror duet including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable featuring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is canny scheduling. No swollen lore. No legacy baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

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

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy IP: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. 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

Myth turns mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror swings back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The 2026 chiller year to come: entries, filmmaker-first projects, paired with A jammed Calendar calibrated for chills

Dek The new horror year crams from day one with a January cluster, subsequently flows through the mid-year, and well into the festive period, braiding name recognition, new concepts, and data-minded release strategy. Studios and streamers are prioritizing smart costs, exclusive theatrical windows first, and shareable marketing that shape the slate’s entries into national conversation.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror filmmaking has solidified as the consistent swing in programming grids, a lane that can grow when it catches and still mitigate the drawdown when it doesn’t. After 2023 proved to buyers that low-to-mid budget genre plays can command audience talk, 2024 carried the beat with auteur-driven buzzy films and unexpected risers. The momentum extended into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and elevated films underscored there is demand for a spectrum, from franchise continuations to director-led originals that play globally. The takeaway for 2026 is a lineup that shows rare alignment across the industry, with strategic blocks, a equilibrium of recognizable IP and untested plays, and a reinvigorated priority on exclusive windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and home platforms.

Insiders argue the space now works like a schedule utility on the rollout map. Horror can roll out on numerous frames, yield a tight logline for promo reels and platform-native cuts, and exceed norms with crowds that arrive on previews Thursday and sustain through the second weekend if the offering connects. Coming out of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 rhythm telegraphs certainty in that approach. The calendar rolls out with a front-loaded January run, then leans on spring and early summer for audience offsets, while carving room for a fall corridor that flows toward late October and into post-Halloween. The map also highlights the greater integration of indie distributors and streaming partners that can grow from platform, ignite recommendations, and grow at the proper time.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across unified worlds and legacy franchises. Big banners are not just producing another return. They are seeking to position lineage with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that announces a re-angled tone or a ensemble decision that reconnects a next entry to a heyday. At the meanwhile, the creative teams behind the eagerly awaited originals are prioritizing hands-on technique, practical gags and site-specific worlds. That interplay hands 2026 a lively combination of brand comfort and novelty, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two marquee projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a cross-generational handoff and a foundation-forward character-focused installment. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance indicates a classic-referencing bent without covering again the last two entries’ sisters storyline. The studio is likely to mount a drive stacked with classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a trailer cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will foreground. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase mainstream recognition through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format inviting quick redirects to whatever tops pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three distinct entries. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is straightforward, grief-rooted, and premise-first: a grieving man purchases an intelligent companion that evolves into a dangerous lover. The date nudges it to the front of a competition-heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to revisit viral uncanny stunts and short-form creative that blurs companionship and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title drop to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial promo. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Closing out 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 treated as event films, with a concept-forward tease and a next wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor allows Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy aesthetic can feel cinematic on a middle budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror hit that maximizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is marketing as a new take 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 franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around world-building, and monster craft, elements that can lift premium booking interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by minute detail and language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is strong.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform plans for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre entries head to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that amplifies both launch urgency and trial spikes in the downstream. Prime Video pairs library titles with global acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog engagement, using editorial spots, Halloween hubs, and editorial rows to maximize the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps options open about originals and festival pickups, confirming horror entries closer to drop and turning into events debuts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a tiered of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a curated basis. The platform has signaled readiness to pick up select projects with award winners or star-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation builds.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 slate with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clean: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a theatrical-first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, managing the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has been successful for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using select theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their membership.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap brand equity. The risk, as ever, is staleness. The near-term solution is to pitch each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is leading with character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a continental coloration from a new voice. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the configuration is assuring enough to spark pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps announce the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not obstruct a same-day experiment from winning when the brand was strong. In 2024, precision craft horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and expand the canvas. 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 double feature plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, lets marketing to bridge entries through character arcs and themes and to continue assets in field without long breaks.

Craft and creative trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this slate hint at a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that spotlights mood and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that withholds plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a self-aware reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature craft and set design, which are ideal for fan-con activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

From winter to holidays

January is loaded. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid heavier IP. The month finishes 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 credible, but the palette of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late Q1 and spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a transitional slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, see here likely driven by a minimalist tease strategy and limited information drops that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then leveraging 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 carrying holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s artificial companion turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: gothic-game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss claw to survive on a isolated island as the hierarchy turns and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to dread, founded on Cronin’s material craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting scenario that interrogates the horror of a child’s wobbly senses. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that pokes at current genre trends and true crime fervors. Rating: TBD. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites detonates, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new clan bound to ancient dread. Rating: pending. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-first horror over action spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBD. Production: in progress. 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 antique diction and elemental dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces frame this lineup. First, production that stalled or shifted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and condensed 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate clippable moments from test screenings, precision scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 modest-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 left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, audio design, 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 Looks Exciting

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is IP strength where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.