Age-old Evil Stirs in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding horror thriller, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

This eerie paranormal shockfest from screenwriter / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an mythic fear when newcomers become proxies in a devilish contest. Dropping on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing journey of perseverance and prehistoric entity that will redefine the horror genre this October. Directed by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and moody cinema piece follows five individuals who snap to locked in a unreachable structure under the unfriendly command of Kyra, a cursed figure haunted by a millennia-old sacred-era entity. Prepare to be hooked by a theatrical presentation that melds soul-chilling terror with arcane tradition, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a mainstay tradition in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is flipped when the beings no longer emerge outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This portrays the most terrifying dimension of the players. The result is a riveting moral showdown where the events becomes a unforgiving clash between purity and corruption.


In a haunting wilderness, five young people find themselves confined under the malevolent dominion and possession of a mysterious female figure. As the characters becomes defenseless to oppose her influence, detached and attacked by unknowns beyond comprehension, they are made to stand before their darkest emotions while the hours brutally edges forward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia surges and teams disintegrate, pushing each cast member to examine their personhood and the nature of volition itself. The intensity rise with every fleeting time, delivering a chilling narrative that blends mystical fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to dive into instinctual horror, an force rooted in antiquity, filtering through mental cracks, and testing a power that redefines identity when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra meant evoking something more primal than sorrow. She is unseeing until the control shifts, and that pivot is bone-chilling because it is so emotional.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be available for digital release beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring customers worldwide can face this demonic journey.


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


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, spreading the horror to global fright lovers.


Tune in for this soul-jarring spiral into evil. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to face these spiritual awakenings about our species.


For film updates, production insights, and alerts via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursed across social media and visit the official website.





Modern horror’s sea change: the 2025 cycle U.S. calendar melds old-world possession, art-house nightmares, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Beginning with last-stand terror inspired by biblical myth and stretching into installment follow-ups set beside acutely observed indies, 2025 appears poised to be the most textured as well as blueprinted year in recent memory.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. top-tier distributors bookend the months via recognizable brands, while SVOD players crowd the fall with emerging auteurs paired with ancestral chills. On another front, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is propelled by the backdraft from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and now, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are surgical, and 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: High-craft horror returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal banner begins the calendar with a headline swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, in an immediate now. Steered by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Slated for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Under Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

When summer tapers, the WB camp drops the final chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re boards, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: nostalgic menace, trauma explicitly handled, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The stakes escalate here, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, stretches the animatronic parade, reaching teens and game grownups. It posts in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Firsts: Modest spend, serious shock

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a close quarters body horror study anchored by 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 toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a smart play. No bloated canon. No continuity burden. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Brands: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, led 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 sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Key Trends

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror ascends again
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch 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.

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



The oncoming scare season: Sequels, universe starters, together with A busy Calendar designed for chills

Dek The arriving terror cycle loads in short order with a January traffic jam, before it stretches through the mid-year, and straight through the late-year period, mixing legacy muscle, new voices, and shrewd counterplay. The major players are focusing on cost discipline, theatrical-first rollouts, and short-form initiatives that shape these pictures into culture-wide discussion.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has proven to be the most reliable swing in studio lineups, a genre that can grow when it resonates and still protect the losses when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for leaders that low-to-mid budget scare machines can galvanize the discourse, the following year kept the drumbeat going with buzzy auteur projects and surprise hits. The head of steam carried into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and premium-leaning entries proved there is an opening for many shades, from series extensions to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a calendar that seems notably aligned across the major shops, with defined corridors, a pairing of established brands and fresh ideas, and a sharpened strategy on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on PVOD and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now operates like a swing piece on the grid. Horror can kick off on virtually any date, furnish a quick sell for trailers and vertical videos, and exceed norms with moviegoers that turn out on opening previews and return through the next weekend if the picture hits. In the wake of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 configuration telegraphs conviction in that dynamic. The calendar commences with a busy January band, then uses spring and early summer for balance, while holding room for a fall cadence that connects to All Hallows period and afterwards. The grid also highlights the stronger partnership of specialized labels and SVOD players that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and widen at the sweet spot.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across shared IP webs and heritage properties. Major shops are not just producing another return. They are moving to present brand continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting choice that binds a next film to a early run. At the very same time, the auteurs behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing on-set craft, on-set effects and concrete locations. That pairing produces the 2026 slate a vital pairing of trust and discovery, which is how the genre sells abroad.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount defines the early cadence with two big-ticket titles that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the core, marketing it as both a baton pass and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the tonal posture telegraphs a legacy-leaning strategy without recycling the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Watch for a push rooted in iconic art, intro reveals, and a tiered teaser plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will play up. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format allowing quick shifts to whatever drives the discourse that spring.

Universal has three differentiated plays. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tidy, soulful, and big-hook: a grieving man installs an algorithmic mate that mutates into a deadly partner. The date puts it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s team likely to revisit uncanny live moments and short-cut promos that melds intimacy and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a name unveil to become an headline beat closer to the first look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His projects are branded as director events, with a hinting teaser and a subsequent trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The pre-Halloween slot affords Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has proven that a gritty, practical-effects forward strategy can feel high-value on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror jolt that emphasizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio launches two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, holding a trusty supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is calling a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build assets around world-building, and creature builds, elements that can lift premium screens and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on historical precision and language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The specialty arm has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is supportive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal titles window into copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that elevates both FOMO and platform bumps in the back half. Prime Video balances licensed titles with global pickups and limited cinema engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog discovery, using seasonal hubs, holiday hubs, weblink and staff picks to lengthen the tail on aggregate take. Netflix keeps options open about original films and festival pickups, slotting horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops launches with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a paired of selective theatrical runs and short jumps to platform that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a selective basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with top-tier auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 corridor with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is clean: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, retooled for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a big-screen first plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, piloting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday slot to go wider. That positioning has shown results for prestige horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception warrants. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchises versus originals

By proportion, 2026 bends toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness marquee value. The challenge, as ever, is staleness. The go-to fix is to sell each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is spotlighting character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a emerging director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the packaging is assuring enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Three-year comps contextualize the template. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not foreclose a same-day experiment from delivering when the brand was robust. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror surged in premium large format. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they alter lens and stretch the story. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot consecutively, permits marketing to link the films through character web and themes and to continue assets in field without doldrums.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The creative meetings behind this slate telegraph a continued tilt toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that emphasizes atmosphere and fear rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a tease that leans on mood over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and earns shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta refresh that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature craft and set design, which lend themselves to con floor moments and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel primary. Look for trailers that center surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that land in premium houses.

Annual flow

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 brooding contrast amid headline IP. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the menu of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Late Q1 and spring set up the summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil follows September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited pre-release reveals that center concept over reveals.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s artificial companion unfolds into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 tough boss fight to survive on a rugged island as the pecking order shifts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

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 retelling that returns the monster to menace, built on Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 domestic haunting tale that manipulates the unease of a child’s mercurial read. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-built and toplined supernatural 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 comic send-up that lampoons hot-button genre motifs and true crime fascinations. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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: TBA. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a unlucky family lashed to lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-core horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBD. Production: active. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 time-true diction and elemental dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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

Why 2026 lands now

Three workable forces structure this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-slotted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming placements. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will trade weekends across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can make hay in 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 fit below the $40–$50 million line, 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From Check This Out viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand equity where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.