Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on leading streamers

This spine-tingling otherworldly fright fest from screenwriter / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an archaic evil when guests become subjects in a demonic ordeal. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing chronicle of survival and ancient evil that will revolutionize scare flicks this October. Produced by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and eerie cinema piece follows five unacquainted souls who find themselves ensnared in a far-off structure under the aggressive rule of Kyra, a possessed female dominated by a time-worn scriptural evil. Be prepared to be captivated by a big screen presentation that combines soul-chilling terror with mythic lore, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a long-standing fixture in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is turned on its head when the monsters no longer manifest from elsewhere, but rather from their core. This echoes the haunting facet of the cast. The result is a emotionally raw mind game where the intensity becomes a unyielding fight between light and darkness.


In a forsaken wild, five characters find themselves cornered under the ominous effect and spiritual invasion of a secretive being. As the protagonists becomes paralyzed to oppose her influence, isolated and followed by spirits beyond reason, they are made to endure their inner horrors while the countdown without pause draws closer toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear surges and teams crack, pushing each survivor to doubt their essence and the notion of liberty itself. The consequences accelerate with every beat, delivering a nightmarish journey that combines otherworldly suspense with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to dive into instinctual horror, an spirit from prehistory, influencing emotional vulnerability, and challenging a entity that threatens selfhood when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra meant channeling something far beyond human desperation. She is insensitive until the entity awakens, and that flip is shocking because it is so close.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be available for worldwide release beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving users worldwide can face this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its release of trailer #1, which has earned over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, presenting the nightmare to scare fans abroad.


Do not miss this mind-warping exploration of dread. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to witness these terrifying truths about free will.


For film updates, set experiences, and alerts from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Facebook and TikTok and visit the film’s website.





The horror genre’s Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. Slate braids together archetypal-possession themes, Indie Shockers, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from survivor-centric dread infused with scriptural legend and stretching into franchise returns and keen independent perspectives, 2025 stands to become horror’s most layered as well as tactically planned year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Major studios lock in tentpoles through proven series, simultaneously SVOD players prime the fall with emerging auteurs paired with legend-coded dread. In parallel, horror’s indie wing is fueled by the backdraft from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. 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 eager, studios are calculated, accordingly 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline begins the calendar with a headline swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a clear present-tense world. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. arriving 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.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Helmed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. unveils the final movement of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: vintage toned fear, trauma in the foreground, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time the stakes climb, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, stretches the animatronic parade, courting teens and the thirty something base. It books December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Offerings: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga led by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within 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 looks like sharp programming. No overweight mythology. No legacy baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

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

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, under Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trends Worth Watching

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror reemerges
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. 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. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The upcoming Horror lineup: entries, filmmaker-first projects, And A jammed Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek The emerging scare year crowds from the jump with a January wave, after that flows through the summer months, and continuing into the holidays, balancing brand heft, new concepts, and well-timed calendar placement. Studios and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that pivot the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has proven to be the bankable play in release plans, a genre that can surge when it catches and still hedge the downside when it underperforms. After 2023 reassured greenlighters that responsibly budgeted horror vehicles can galvanize audience talk, 2024 continued the surge with high-profile filmmaker pieces and stealth successes. The run moved into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and premium-leaning entries proved there is capacity for many shades, from series extensions to non-IP projects that translate worldwide. The end result for 2026 is a calendar that reads highly synchronized across the market, with planned clusters, a balance of marquee IP and original hooks, and a recommitted emphasis on exhibition windows that feed downstream value on PVOD and streaming.

Executives say the category now acts as a swing piece on the schedule. The genre can debut on nearly any frame, generate a easy sell for teasers and short-form placements, and lead with patrons that arrive on Thursday previews and sustain through the second weekend if the title delivers. On the heels of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 mapping exhibits confidence in that approach. The slate starts with a weighty January corridor, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while leaving room for a autumn stretch that pushes into the fright window and beyond. The schedule also includes the tightening integration of specialty arms and subscription services that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and scale up at the precise moment.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across interlocking continuities and storied titles. The players are not just greenlighting another follow-up. They are setting up lore continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a tonal shift or a star attachment that links a incoming chapter to a early run. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the most watched originals are championing tactile craft, makeup and prosthetics and vivid settings. That pairing provides the 2026 slate a robust balance of recognition and newness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount marks the early tempo with two spotlight projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the spine, steering it as both a succession moment and a DNA-forward character-centered film. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a memory-charged approach without going over the last two navigate to this website entries’ sisters thread. Count on a promo wave built on signature symbols, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will emphasize. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will hunt mainstream recognition through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever leads the discourse that spring.

Universal has three separate plays. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tidy, tragic, and high-concept: a grieving man sets up an synthetic partner that turns into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a front-loaded month, with the Universal machine likely to bring back eerie street stunts and short-form creative that threads longing and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as 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 leaves room for a final title to become an earned moment closer to the initial tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His projects are treated as signature events, with a concept-forward tease and a second wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor creates space for Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has demonstrated that a in-your-face, practical-effects forward execution can feel cinematic on a lean spend. Look for a blood-soaked summer horror shock that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio rolls out two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is positioning as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both franchise faithful and general audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build materials around canon, and monster craft, elements that can accelerate premium booking interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in historical precision and linguistic texture, this time exploring werewolf lore. The company has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is positive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a pacing that enhances both first-week urgency and sign-up spikes in the late-window. Prime Video balances licensed films with global originals and short theatrical plays when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog discovery, using seasonal hubs, holiday hubs, and handpicked rows to maximize the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix remains opportunistic about internal projects and festival deals, dating horror entries near their drops and eventizing launches with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a paired of targeted cinema placements and short jumps to platform that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a situational basis. The platform has shown a willingness to invest in select projects with top-tier auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is curating 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 sell is direct: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, retooled for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the back half.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, managing the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas corridor to open out. That positioning has been successful for arthouse horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception prompts. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using small theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their membership.

IP versus fresh ideas

By skew, 2026 leans in favor of the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use fan equity. The concern, as ever, is viewer burnout. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is underscoring character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French sensibility from a ascendant talent. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the bundle is anchored enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night crowds.

The last three-year set make sense of the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept clean windows did not deter a hybrid test from hitting when the brand was powerful. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror over-performed in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel new when they rotate perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses see here on 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 produced back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to cross-link entries through character spine and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without lulls.

Technique and craft currents

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the year’s horror indicate a continued lean toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that leans on grain and menace rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft coverage before rolling out a first look that elevates tone over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and earns shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-referential reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature and environment design, which play well in expo activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel definitive. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in big rooms.

How the year maps out

January is loaded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid bigger brand plays. The month closes 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 credible, but the tone spread affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Early-year through spring prepare summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a late-September window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a minimalist tease strategy and limited advance reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s AI companion evolves into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: tone-first 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 abrasive boss battle to survive on a uninhabited island as the pecking order upends and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 contemporary retelling that returns the monster to chill, based on Cronin’s tactile craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting setup that routes the horror through a kid’s uneven personal vantage. Rating: TBD. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-crafted and celebrity-led ghost thriller.

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 satirical comeback that lampoons current genre trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 international twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further opens again, with a young family bound to returning horrors. 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: TBD publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survivalist horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBD. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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-specific language and raw menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 moment is 2026

Three pragmatic forces structure this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or rearranged in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine turnkey scare beats from test screenings, metered scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space 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 trade weekends across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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 journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, 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 preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sonics, and image-making 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 Shapes Up Strong

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand power where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the chills sell the seats.