Mythic Evil emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked chiller, launching October 2025 on top streamers

One eerie unearthly fright fest from storyteller / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an age-old horror when guests become tools in a supernatural ordeal. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful portrayal of living through and forgotten curse that will revolutionize fear-driven cinema this Halloween season. Realized by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and cinematic story follows five figures who find themselves stuck in a hidden lodge under the malignant manipulation of Kyra, a mysterious girl inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old biblical force. Be warned to be gripped by a big screen journey that integrates bodily fright with spiritual backstory, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a recurring concept in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is twisted when the dark entities no longer form outside the characters, but rather within themselves. This suggests the haunting side of every character. The result is a harrowing moral showdown where the narrative becomes a merciless conflict between innocence and sin.


In a forsaken terrain, five figures find themselves imprisoned under the unholy dominion and curse of a obscure entity. As the companions becomes unable to escape her influence, isolated and preyed upon by beings unnamable, they are required to acknowledge their raw vulnerabilities while the moments without pause strikes toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear swells and connections dissolve, forcing each person to rethink their core and the nature of personal agency itself. The risk rise with every breath, delivering a scare-fueled ride that weaves together unearthly horror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to explore instinctual horror, an threat that existed before mankind, feeding on emotional fractures, and questioning a evil that peels away humanity when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra was about accessing something rooted in terror. She is clueless until the takeover begins, and that pivot is deeply unsettling because it is so raw.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure horror lovers globally can survive this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original clip, which has collected over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, spreading the horror to viewers around the world.


Avoid skipping this unforgettable path of possession. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to dive into these nightmarish insights about mankind.


For exclusive trailers, production insights, and updates straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across entertainment pages and visit our spooky domain.





Today’s horror Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. calendar braids together myth-forward possession, underground frights, paired with legacy-brand quakes

Kicking off with last-stand terror rooted in ancient scripture to installment follow-ups together with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 appears poised to be the most textured in tandem with calculated campaign year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. leading studios are anchoring the year with franchise anchors, as premium streamers prime the fall with discovery plays paired with ancestral chills. At the same time, festival-forward creators is carried on the kinetic energy from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are exacting, therefore 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal kicks off the frame with a risk-forward move: a reconceived Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. landing in mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Under Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner Bros. banner releases the last chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re engages, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: old school creep, trauma driven plotting, along with eerie supernatural rules. The ante is higher this round, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The follow up digs further into canon, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, speaking to teens and older millennials. It arrives in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is destined for a fall landing.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, 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 menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No bloated mythology. 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.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Long Running Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Dials to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

What’s Next: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

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, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The next Horror slate: Sequels, fresh concepts, plus A Crowded Calendar optimized for Scares

Dek The upcoming scare calendar lines up right away with a January wave, and then rolls through peak season, and carrying into the holiday frame, marrying IP strength, untold stories, and calculated calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are embracing smart costs, big-screen-first runs, and buzz-forward plans that shape the slate’s entries into water-cooler talk.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The horror sector has proven to be the dependable release in programming grids, a lane that can grow when it catches and still insulate the liability when it falls short. After the 2023 year reminded leaders that low-to-mid budget fright engines can dominate pop culture, the following year sustained momentum with signature-voice projects and sleeper breakouts. The carry translated to the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and elevated films confirmed there is a lane for varied styles, from brand follow-ups to original one-offs that perform internationally. The aggregate for 2026 is a schedule that is strikingly coherent across the major shops, with intentional bunching, a combination of recognizable IP and novel angles, and a refocused emphasis on big-screen windows that drive downstream revenue on PVOD and home streaming.

Marketers add the genre now performs as a versatile piece on the grid. The genre can launch on numerous frames, supply a quick sell for trailers and platform-native cuts, and overperform with ticket buyers that arrive on previews Thursday and hold through the next pass if the feature connects. Post a production delay era, the 2026 configuration underscores conviction in that approach. The calendar commences with a crowded January corridor, then exploits spring through early summer for counterprogramming, while reserving space for a autumn stretch that extends to spooky season and into the next week. The gridline also highlights the greater integration of boutique distributors and OTT outlets that can build gradually, generate chatter, and broaden at the right moment.

A notable top-line trend is legacy care across ongoing universes and long-running brands. Studio teams are not just pushing another follow-up. They are shaping as story carry-over with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that signals a refreshed voice or a casting move that bridges a incoming chapter to a original cycle. At the concurrently, the filmmakers behind the headline-grabbing originals are returning to practical craft, physical gags and vivid settings. That interplay gives the 2026 slate a healthy mix of assurance and discovery, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate moves that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the lead, marketing it as both a legacy handover and a back-to-basics character piece. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the creative posture announces a nostalgia-forward framework without rehashing the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Plan for a rollout fueled by iconic art, first-look character reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt large awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format inviting quick switches to whatever defines the social talk that spring.

Universal has three separate pushes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is elegant, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man onboards an digital partner that evolves into a killer companion. The date places it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s promo team likely to renew uncanny live moments and short reels that melds attachment and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a final title to become an earned moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s work are treated as must-see filmmaker statements, with a hinting teaser and a second beat that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The Halloween runway allows Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to this contact form 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 in the lead. The franchise has consistently shown that a raw, in-camera leaning method can feel premium on a lean spend. Look for a red-band summer horror surge that centers overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio mounts two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, carrying a bankable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is positioning as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both longtime followers and curious audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build materials around universe detail, and practical creature work, elements that can accelerate deluxe auditorium demand 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 extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by careful craft and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The label has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is supportive.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre entries land on copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ordering that enhances both week-one demand and sign-up spikes in the back half. Prime Video balances third-party pickups with global acquisitions and limited cinema engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog engagement, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and staff picks to maximize the tail on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about internal projects and festival wins, dating horror entries with shorter lead times and staging as events premieres with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a staged of limited theatrical footprints and accelerated platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a per-project basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to acquire select projects with accomplished filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 pipeline with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is direct: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the September weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, managing the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has proved effective for arthouse horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception prompts. Do not be surprised by 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 boutique theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchises versus originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate leans toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness brand equity. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The practical approach is to frame each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is underscoring character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a rising filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the team and cast is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps illuminate the plan. In 2023, a cinema-first model that respected streaming windows did not stop a parallel release from working when the brand was potent. In 2024, art-forward horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot consecutively, creates space for marketing to cross-link entries through cast and motif and to leave creative active without long breaks.

How the films are being made

The craft conversations behind the 2026 slate forecast a continued turn toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that highlights grain and menace rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in feature stories and craft spotlights before rolling out a first look that elevates tone over story, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-aware reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature craft and set design, which favor convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts 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. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid heavier IP. The month concludes 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 formidable, but the variety of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

February through May load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads 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 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a early fall window that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited plot reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card spend.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s synthetic partner turns into something perilously amorous. 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 difficult boss work to survive on a remote island as the power dynamic shifts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to nightmare, based on Cronin’s physical craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting piece that threads the dread through a child’s unreliable POV. Rating: forthcoming. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A satire sequel that skewers today’s horror trends and true crime fixations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new family bound to old terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survivalist horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBD. Production: continuing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and primordial menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026, why now

Three workable forces drive this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or rearranged in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and leaner schedules. 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 beaten straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify meme-ready beats from test screenings, metered scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 sleeper-hit hunt 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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two 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 bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, acoustics, 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 Is Well Positioned

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is IP strength where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.