Primeval Evil returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding feature, rolling out October 2025 on global platforms

An bone-chilling spectral scare-fest from screenwriter / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an age-old nightmare when foreigners become subjects in a supernatural ceremony. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing episode of perseverance and timeless dread that will reconstruct terror storytelling this scare season. Guided by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and eerie tale follows five young adults who are stirred stuck in a cut-off house under the dark rule of Kyra, a cursed figure dominated by a timeless sacred-era entity. Be warned to be drawn in by a motion picture spectacle that unites soul-chilling terror with legendary tales, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a time-honored foundation in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is subverted when the entities no longer appear outside their bodies, but rather through their own souls. This portrays the haunting layer of the victims. The result is a gripping mind game where the suspense becomes a relentless battle between divinity and wickedness.


In a bleak landscape, five youths find themselves cornered under the malevolent control and overtake of a unknown being. As the cast becomes powerless to reject her influence, left alone and targeted by evils inconceivable, they are pushed to battle their greatest panics while the timeline unforgivingly runs out toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust intensifies and partnerships fracture, prompting each participant to reconsider their being and the nature of liberty itself. The intensity intensify with every minute, delivering a terror ride that combines spiritual fright with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to channel elemental fright, an threat born of forgotten ages, channeling itself through fragile psyche, and testing a presence that questions who we are when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra meant evoking something rooted in terror. She is innocent until the curse activates, and that evolution is haunting because it is so unshielded.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving subscribers no matter where they are can enjoy this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original promo, which has pulled in over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, giving access to the movie to thrill-seekers globally.


Join this heart-stopping exploration of dread. Confront *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to acknowledge these fearful discoveries about mankind.


For teasers, production news, and promotions from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursed across entertainment pages and visit youngandcursed.com.





Modern horror’s major pivot: calendar year 2025 American release plan Mixes myth-forward possession, signature indie scares, set against brand-name tremors

Moving from grit-forward survival fare drawn from old testament echoes to brand-name continuations alongside surgical indie voices, 2025 is coalescing into the most complex together with precision-timed year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio powerhouses lay down anchors by way of signature titles, even as digital services flood the fall with debut heat alongside ancestral chills. Meanwhile, independent banners is riding the backdraft of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween stays the prime week, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The fall stretch is the proving field, notably this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are intentional, therefore 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

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

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a big gambit: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in an immediate now. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. From director Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

By late summer, the Warner Bros. banner launches the swan song of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re teams, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: nostalgic menace, trauma as theme, plus otherworld rules that chill. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, reaching teens and game grownups. It posts in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Firsts: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a two hander body horror spiral pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. 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 threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

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. It is canny scheduling. No puffed out backstory. No IP hangover. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Series Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens 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, guided by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

Key Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forecast: Autumn density and winter pivot

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

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. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The coming 2026 scare calendar year ahead: installments, Originals, paired with A brimming Calendar designed for jolts

Dek: The new scare year builds from the jump with a January traffic jam, then runs through midyear, and pushing into the festive period, fusing IP strength, new voices, and shrewd alternatives. Distributors with platforms are committing to responsible budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that convert the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror has turned into the most reliable swing in distribution calendars, a space that can surge when it performs and still cushion the risk when it under-delivers. After 2023 signaled to buyers that modestly budgeted entries can steer audience talk, 2024 kept energy high with buzzy auteur projects and word-of-mouth wins. The head of steam extended into 2025, where revivals and awards-minded projects underscored there is a lane for different modes, from franchise continuations to non-IP projects that export nicely. The result for the 2026 slate is a roster that presents tight coordination across players, with clear date clusters, a harmony of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a revived priority on theater exclusivity that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and home platforms.

Distribution heads claim the space now works like a versatile piece on the rollout map. Horror can debut on most weekends, supply a tight logline for spots and social clips, and outperform with demo groups that lean in on previews Thursday and stick through the sophomore frame if the feature pays off. In the wake of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence shows trust in that model. The slate kicks off with a heavy January stretch, then targets spring into early summer for off-slot scheduling, while making space for a fall run that runs into the fright window and afterwards. The map also spotlights the ongoing integration of specialty arms and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, create conversation, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across ongoing universes and established properties. The players are not just pushing another entry. They are setting up lore continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that flags a tonal shift or a casting move that reconnects a fresh chapter to a foundational era. At the same time, the filmmakers behind the top original plays are embracing on-set craft, real effects and grounded locations. That pairing gives the 2026 slate a lively combination of familiarity and shock, which is how the films export.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount marks the early tempo with two marquee entries that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, steering it as both a cross-generational handoff and a heritage-centered character-centered film. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a nostalgia-forward mode without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave centered on legacy iconography, early character teases, and a trailer cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens 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 partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will spotlight. As a counterweight in summer, this one will generate four-quadrant chatter through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format allowing quick reframes to whatever shapes the conversation that spring.

Universal has three clear pushes. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is straightforward, soulful, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that unfolds into a perilous partner. The date sets it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s campaign likely to recreate uncanny live moments and bite-size content that hybridizes romance and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under code 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 creates space for a official title to become an PR pop closer to the teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s pictures are treated as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives the studio room to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has made clear that a raw, hands-on effects strategy can feel high-value on a tight budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror rush that leans hard into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, holding a steady supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is billing as a reimagined restart 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 sharper mandate to serve both core fans and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around environmental design, and creature design, elements that can lift deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on textural authenticity and period speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus Features has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is robust.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform plans for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a stair-step that elevates both FOMO and viewer acquisition in the post-theatrical. Prime Video stitches together licensed titles with global originals and limited cinema engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog engagement, using seasonal hubs, spooky hubs, and featured rows to increase tail value on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival deals, confirming horror entries with shorter lead times and coalescing around go-lives with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of targeted cinema placements and prompt platform moves that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is curating a 2026 runway with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is uncomplicated: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, elevated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then working the December frame to increase reach. That positioning has paid off for arthouse horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception warrants. Look for 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 jointly, using small theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By weight, 2026 favors the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on marquee value. The concern, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to brand each entry as a new angle. Paramount is emphasizing character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the assembly is steady enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Three-year comps illuminate the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that respected streaming windows did not block a day-and-date experiment from performing when the brand was trusted. In 2024, precision craft horror exceeded expectations in premium formats. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, permits marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to leave creative active without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The production chatter behind the upcoming entries indicate a continued move toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that centers atmosphere and fear rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft profiles and artisan spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and gathers shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which favor convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in premium houses.

Release calendar overview

January is full. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid bigger brand plays. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late Q1 and spring tee up summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop 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 rotated off PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited information drops that center concept over reveals.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, his comment is here with casting ongoing as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genes. 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 heartbroken man’s virtual companion turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie 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 be swallowed by a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 hard-edged boss scramble to survive on a lonely island as the pecking order swivels and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to nightmare, driven by Cronin’s physical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 residential haunting tale that channels the fear through a preteen’s uneven internal vantage. Rating: TBD. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A satirical comeback that lampoons current genre trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 ignites, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a fresh family bound to old terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-first horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and primal menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 and why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces drive this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and pared-down timelines. 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work shareable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will jostle across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. 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.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment without needing superhero-level volume my company 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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 beat and breadth. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, 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 trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, audio design, 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

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand heft where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.