Ancient Evil stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across major platforms

A unnerving otherworldly fear-driven tale from scriptwriter / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an ancient dread when outsiders become subjects in a hellish trial. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking story of living through and age-old darkness that will alter horror this harvest season. Created by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and eerie fearfest follows five unacquainted souls who regain consciousness stuck in a off-grid dwelling under the unfriendly dominion of Kyra, a mysterious girl controlled by a antiquated holy text monster. Prepare to be immersed by a theatrical display that weaves together deep-seated panic with folklore, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a well-established tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is challenged when the monsters no longer descend from external sources, but rather from their core. This echoes the most sinister layer of all involved. The result is a harrowing moral showdown where the suspense becomes a merciless contest between virtue and vice.


In a abandoned no-man's-land, five teens find themselves confined under the sinister effect and spiritual invasion of a secretive figure. As the ensemble becomes powerless to break her dominion, isolated and tormented by entities beyond comprehension, they are thrust to acknowledge their raw vulnerabilities while the moments mercilessly strikes toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust surges and partnerships disintegrate, pushing each individual to question their personhood and the foundation of decision-making itself. The tension mount with every minute, delivering a horror experience that intertwines demonic fright with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to tap into primitive panic, an force that predates humanity, operating within fragile psyche, and testing a spirit that tests the soul when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra needed manifesting something beneath mortal despair. She is blind until the entity awakens, and that conversion is gut-wrenching because it is so intimate.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering watchers everywhere can face this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its release of trailer #1, which has attracted over six-figure audience.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, extending the thrill to international horror buffs.


Mark your calendar for this haunted exploration of dread. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to dive into these ghostly lessons about our species.


For bonus footage, director cuts, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YACFilm across media channels and visit the movie portal.





American horror’s major pivot: 2025 across markets American release plan melds Mythic Possession, Indie Shockers, set against tentpole growls

Across grit-forward survival fare infused with near-Eastern lore through to installment follow-ups in concert with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is emerging as the most textured as well as deliberate year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios lay down anchors by way of signature titles, even as streamers saturate the fall with unboxed visions as well as scriptural shivers. On another front, horror’s indie wing is carried on the tailwinds from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween stays the prime week, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, however this time, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are calculated, accordingly 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium genre swings back

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a confident swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a crisp modern milieu. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. landing in mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer wanes, Warner’s slate drops the final chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 follows. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retro dread, trauma driven plotting, and a cold supernatural calculus. The stakes escalate here, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The new chapter enriches the lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It lands in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Economy, maximum dread

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a close quarters body horror study led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also rising is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative led by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Shaped and helmed 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. That is a savvy move. No overstuffed canon. No series drag. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. 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. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Brands: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trend Lines

Mythic currents go 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 pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror retakes ground
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Forward View: Fall pileup, winter curveball

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

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 mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The approaching scare calendar year ahead: brand plays, original films, in tandem with A jammed Calendar tailored for goosebumps

Dek: The arriving scare slate loads from the jump with a January logjam, thereafter extends through the mid-year, and straight through the late-year period, marrying marquee clout, new concepts, and well-timed counterprogramming. Studio marketers and platforms are leaning into tight budgets, box-office-first windows, and social-driven marketing that elevate the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has grown into the bankable play in distribution calendars, a lane that can break out when it connects and still limit the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 signaled to strategy teams that lean-budget shockers can dominate social chatter, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with buzzy auteur projects and sleeper breakouts. The trend extended into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and arthouse crossovers showed there is appetite for multiple flavors, from returning installments to original one-offs that travel well. The sum for the 2026 slate is a calendar that shows rare alignment across distributors, with planned clusters, a mix of recognizable IP and new pitches, and a refocused commitment on theatrical windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital and platforms.

Buyers contend the horror lane now acts as a wildcard on the release plan. Horror can arrive on most weekends, deliver a simple premise for trailers and TikTok spots, and outstrip with fans that turn out on advance nights and return through the second weekend if the entry hits. After a work stoppage lag, the 2026 pattern reflects belief in that logic. The slate opens with a weighty January lineup, then taps spring and early summer for audience offsets, while leaving room for a autumn stretch that pushes into Halloween and into post-Halloween. The program also underscores the ongoing integration of indie arms and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and grow at the right moment.

A parallel macro theme is series management across interlocking continuities and storied titles. Big banners are not just pushing another chapter. They are looking to package lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a recalibrated tone or a casting move that threads a fresh chapter to a initial period. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are championing hands-on technique, practical effects and grounded locations. That convergence yields 2026 a smart balance of familiarity and unexpected turns, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount opens strong with two front-of-slate plays that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the core, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a return-to-roots character piece. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture signals a nostalgia-forward mode without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Count on a promo wave centered on recognizable motifs, character spotlights, and a tease cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will emphasize. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase wide buzz through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever drives horror talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated pushes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is straightforward, soulful, and easily pitched: a grieving man brings home an virtual partner that shifts into a lethal partner. The date sets it at the front of a packed window, with marketing at Universal likely to mirror strange in-person beats and short-form creative that mixes longing and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a final title to become an fan moment closer to the early tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His projects are branded as signature events, with a opaque teaser and a follow-up trailer set that shape mood without giving away the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date offers Universal room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has made clear that a blood-soaked, physical-effects centered strategy can feel elevated on a tight budget. Expect a hard-R summer horror hit that maximizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, maintaining a evergreen supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is presenting as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build assets around narrative world, and practical creature work, elements that can accelerate large-format demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror built on careful craft and archaic language, this time set against lycan legends. The imprint has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is supportive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. The studio’s horror films feed copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a structure that boosts both week-one demand and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video balances outside acquisitions with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, Halloween hubs, and curated rows to stretch the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix plays opportunist about in-house releases and festival buys, timing horror entries tight to release and elevating as drops debuts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a staged of tailored theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a curated basis. The platform has signaled readiness to acquire select projects with top-tier auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation surges.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 slate with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is straightforward: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, recalibrated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the back half.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the December frame to widen. That positioning has helped for craft-driven weblink horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception warrants. Anticipate 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 in tandem, using boutique theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By count, 2026 is weighted toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on franchise value. The question, as ever, is viewer burnout. The pragmatic answer is to position each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is foregrounding character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and director-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the cast-creatives package is steady enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night crowds.

Recent comps contextualize the template. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that honored streaming windows did not stop a day-and-date experiment from performing when the brand was potent. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror punched above its weight in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel new when they pivot perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to thread films through relationships and themes and to keep materials circulating without dead zones.

Craft and creative trends

The craft rooms behind the upcoming entries hint at a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that leans on tone and tension rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft coverage before rolling out a preview that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a self-referential reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature craft and set design, which are ideal for con floor moments and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that explode in larger rooms.

How the year maps out

January is heavy. 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 atmospheric change-up amid big-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the mix of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Pre-summer months load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late-season stretch leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder season window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited plot reveals that favor idea over plot.

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

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s machine mate grows into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: gothic-game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss fight to survive on a desolate island as the power balance of power upends and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s in-camera craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting premise that leverages the chill of a child’s wobbly point of view. Rating: to be announced. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-crafted and toplined haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A comic send-up that skewers hot-button genre motifs and true-crime crazes. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: production booked 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 transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further extends again, with a another family anchored to past horrors. Rating: pending. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing. 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 time-true diction and elemental dread. Rating: undetermined. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 lands now

Three pragmatic forces frame this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-sequenced in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will stack across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first 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. 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound, and cinematography 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, Ready To Roar

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is franchise muscle where it helps, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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, preserve the surprise, and let the screams sell the seats.