Primordial Terror reawakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked shocker, launching October 2025 on top streamers

This haunting unearthly scare-fest from creator / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an timeless dread when newcomers become conduits in a satanic ordeal. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish portrayal of resistance and old world terror that will alter genre cinema this harvest season. Crafted by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and moody feature follows five young adults who regain consciousness sealed in a hidden cottage under the sinister grip of Kyra, a female presence overtaken by a 2,000-year-old ancient fiend. Ready yourself to be seized by a visual event that combines bodily fright with biblical origins, debuting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a classic motif in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is challenged when the entities no longer descend outside their bodies, but rather internally. This symbolizes the most sinister aspect of the players. The result is a gripping spiritual tug-of-war where the events becomes a unforgiving face-off between heaven and hell.


In a unforgiving outland, five characters find themselves trapped under the sinister effect and infestation of a enigmatic female presence. As the team becomes paralyzed to resist her control, stranded and attacked by evils mind-shattering, they are pushed to encounter their darkest emotions while the moments coldly pushes forward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension rises and relationships implode, requiring each person to question their existence and the integrity of decision-making itself. The danger accelerate with every beat, delivering a fear-soaked story that intertwines mystical fear with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to awaken ancestral fear, an threat before modern man, feeding on psychological breaks, and testing a curse that challenges autonomy when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant channeling something outside normal anguish. She is oblivious until the haunting manifests, and that turn is haunting because it is so close.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be released for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that fans anywhere can witness this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its release of trailer #1, which has garnered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, presenting the nightmare to scare fans abroad.


Join this cinematic spiral into evil. Confront *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to survive these fearful discoveries about existence.


For film updates, production news, and reveals via the production team, follow @YACFilm across your favorite networks and visit our film’s homepage.





Horror’s inflection point: 2025 for genre fans stateside slate fuses old-world possession, independent shockers, plus franchise surges

Across fight-to-live nightmare stories suffused with old testament echoes and onward to legacy revivals plus focused festival visions, 2025 is coalescing into the most stratified as well as carefully orchestrated year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. the big studios lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, in tandem SVOD players saturate the fall with new voices as well as scriptural shivers. Meanwhile, indie storytellers is surfing the echoes of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, notably this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are exacting, which means 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: High-craft horror returns

The majors are assertive. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 doubles down.

Universal Pictures opens the year with a big gambit: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Under director Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. dated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s slate delivers the closing chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma as theme, with ghostly inner logic. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, grows the animatronic horror lineup, speaking to teens and older millennials. It drops in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Originals: No Budget, No Problem

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror duet featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also notable is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Conceived and directed 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 dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped 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. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Heritage Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Dials to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forward View: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch 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 coming 2026 Horror lineup: entries, standalone ideas, and also A brimming Calendar optimized for frights

Dek The emerging terror cycle builds from the jump with a January logjam, from there unfolds through summer corridors, and far into the holiday stretch, mixing IP strength, original angles, and smart release strategy. Studios and platforms are focusing on cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and social-fueled campaigns that convert horror entries into national conversation.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This space has grown into the surest counterweight in release strategies, a vertical that can lift when it clicks and still buffer the risk when it misses. After 2023 reminded buyers that mid-range scare machines can lead the zeitgeist, the following year sustained momentum with filmmaker-forward plays and word-of-mouth wins. The carry extended into 2025, where reawakened brands and awards-minded projects confirmed there is an opening for a variety of tones, from franchise continuations to original features that translate worldwide. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that reads highly synchronized across the field, with defined corridors, a blend of known properties and new concepts, and a reinvigorated priority on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium home window and subscription services.

Buyers contend the genre now performs as a wildcard on the slate. The genre can arrive on virtually any date, yield a easy sell for teasers and TikTok spots, and outstrip with crowds that appear on advance nights and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the feature lands. Post a work stoppage lag, the 2026 setup indicates certainty in that logic. The slate starts with a thick January block, then targets spring into early summer for alternate plays, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that flows toward Halloween and into early November. The program also illustrates the deeper integration of boutique distributors and home platforms that can platform a title, grow buzz, and broaden at the strategic time.

A companion trend is series management across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Distribution groups are not just pushing another chapter. They are seeking to position lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a refreshed voice or a casting pivot that ties a upcoming film to a early run. At the same time, the auteurs behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing in-camera technique, makeup and prosthetics and concrete locations. That mix provides the 2026 slate a strong blend of known notes and surprise, which is what works overseas.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount opens strong with two front-of-slate titles that sit at tonal extremes. 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 lineage transfer and a rootsy character piece. Production is active in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a legacy-leaning campaign without looping the last two entries’ sisters thread. Plan for a rollout centered on brand visuals, intro reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan 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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will generate wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three discrete entries. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tidy, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man activates an AI companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to echo uncanny live moments and bite-size content that interweaves companionship and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a public title to become an earned moment closer to the debut look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s work are branded as marquee events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The spooky-season slot allows Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has long shown that a gnarly, practical-effects forward treatment can feel elevated on a lean spend. Look for a gore-forward summer horror shock that leans hard into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio launches two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, holding a reliable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is presenting as a new take 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 sharper mandate to serve both franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around world-building, and creature work, elements that can increase format premiums and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by textural authenticity and archaic language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is strong.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal titles land on copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a cadence that optimizes both debut momentum and subscriber lifts in the back half. Prime Video interleaves third-party pickups with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library engagement, using seasonal hubs, seasonal hubs, and programmed rows to keep attention on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps options open about originals and festival wins, securing horror entries closer to drop and positioning as event drops arrivals with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a paired of precision releases and accelerated platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown a willingness to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 corridor with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is direct: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, refined for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a cinema-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday frame to expand. That positioning has shown results for craft-driven horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception drives. Watch for 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 together, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Brands and originals

By skew, 2026 tips toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The watch-out, as ever, is audience fatigue. The standing approach is to present each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is bringing forward character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a Francophone tone from a rising filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the assembly is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night crowds.

Recent comps contextualize the method. In 2023, a exclusive window model that observed windows did not hamper a day-date move from hitting when the brand was big. In 2024, auteur craft horror exceeded expectations in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reorient and increase ambition. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, gives leeway to marketing to connect the chapters through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets in-market without doldrums.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind this year’s genre indicate a continued move toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that leans on creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead press and department features before rolling out a tone piece that elevates tone over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to con floor moments and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel key. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is jammed. 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 quiet contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the palette of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Late Q1 and spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited pre-release reveals that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this More about the author before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s artificial companion turns into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 tough boss battle to survive on a cut-off island as the hierarchy upends and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to terror, rooted in Cronin’s physical craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting setup that mediates the fear via a child’s shifting inner lens. Rating: pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: major-studio and toplined occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that teases hot-button genre motifs and true crime fascinations. Rating: TBA. 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 breaks out, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a young family tethered to past horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-first horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBA. 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 period-precise speech and primal menace. Rating: TBD. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces frame this lineup. First, production that stalled or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on meme-ready beats from test screenings, metered scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will compete across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, optimized 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, sound, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is recognizable IP where it plays, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.