Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes mythic darkness, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on global platforms

One blood-curdling metaphysical horror tale from author / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an forgotten horror when guests become tokens in a satanic ordeal. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing story of living through and mythic evil that will revolutionize scare flicks this Halloween season. Crafted by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and shadowy suspense flick follows five characters who are stirred trapped in a hidden cottage under the ominous control of Kyra, a mysterious girl claimed by a prehistoric sacred-era entity. Brace yourself to be absorbed by a filmic event that intertwines deep-seated panic with arcane tradition, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a historical fixture in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is reversed when the malevolences no longer develop from beyond, but rather from their core. This marks the grimmest version of the protagonists. The result is a riveting moral showdown where the conflict becomes a merciless tug-of-war between moral forces.


In a remote forest, five friends find themselves confined under the evil force and spiritual invasion of a enigmatic character. As the youths becomes incapacitated to fight her control, left alone and stalked by spirits mind-shattering, they are confronted to endure their raw vulnerabilities while the deathwatch without pause runs out toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust surges and links collapse, prompting each character to rethink their essence and the integrity of conscious will itself. The tension magnify with every fleeting time, delivering a paranormal ride that integrates demonic fright with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to uncover instinctual horror, an power older than civilization itself, embedding itself in inner turmoil, and challenging a power that forces self-examination when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra was centered on something rooted in terror. She is insensitive until the possession kicks in, and that conversion is emotionally raw because it is so unshielded.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for horror fans beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that fans everywhere can be part of this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its initial teaser, which has collected over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, delivering the story to fans of fear everywhere.


Witness this heart-stopping ride through nightmares. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to experience these spiritual awakenings about inner darkness.


For previews, production news, and announcements straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across social media and visit the official website.





Current horror’s pivotal crossroads: calendar year 2025 stateside slate Mixes myth-forward possession, signature indie scares, alongside returning-series thunder

Running from last-stand terror infused with scriptural legend as well as franchise returns plus keen independent perspectives, 2025 is coalescing into the most dimensioned paired with calculated campaign year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. the big studios bookend the months using marquee IP, as platform operators prime the fall with emerging auteurs set against legend-coded dread. In the indie lane, the art-house flank is propelled by the tailwinds from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and now, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are surgical, as a result 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Elevated fear reclaims ground

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal Pictures begins the calendar with a confident swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. landing in mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Under Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer wanes, the Warner lot sets loose the finale of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: throwback unease, trauma explicitly handled, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This run ups the stakes, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, broadens the animatronic terror cast, reaching teens and game grownups. It books December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Firsts: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. 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.

On the docket is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative with Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It looks like sharp programming. No heavy handed lore. No canon weight. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

What to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Laurels convert to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

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

The Road Ahead: Autumn density and winter pivot

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

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.

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 new chiller cycle: brand plays, Originals, plus A Crowded Calendar geared toward jolts

Dek The new horror season loads early with a January cluster, then runs through midyear, and pushing into the festive period, fusing IP strength, creative pitches, and shrewd offsets. The major players are relying on efficient budgets, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that position the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the sturdy counterweight in release strategies, a vertical that can surge when it clicks and still cushion the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reassured leaders that cost-conscious shockers can own cultural conversation, 2024 maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The upswing rolled into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and filmmaker-prestige bets demonstrated there is an opening for different modes, from sequel tracks to original one-offs that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a run that feels more orchestrated than usual across the industry, with clear date clusters, a blend of legacy names and new packages, and a renewed attention on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on PVOD and platforms.

Insiders argue the genre now functions as a utility player on the schedule. The genre can arrive on many corridors, generate a sharp concept for ad units and platform-native cuts, and outpace with viewers that line up on opening previews and return through the second frame if the movie pays off. Exiting a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 layout shows comfort in that engine. The year launches with a thick January corridor, then leans on spring and early summer for alternate plays, while clearing room for a September to October window that reaches into the Halloween corridor and past the holiday. The schedule also highlights the ongoing integration of indie distributors and subscription services that can launch in limited release, create conversation, and go nationwide at the optimal moment.

A further high-level trend is legacy care across shared universes and long-running brands. The players are not just rolling another next film. They are shaping as lore continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a new vibe or a star attachment that anchors a upcoming film to a early run. At the alongside this, the creative teams behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating real-world builds, practical gags and grounded locations. That pairing provides 2026 a confident blend of recognition and invention, which is why the genre exports well.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount defines the early cadence with two big-ticket releases that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, signaling it as both a lineage transfer and a back-to-basics character-centered film. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the tonal posture announces a throwback-friendly treatment without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave rooted in recognizable motifs, early character teases, and a two-beat trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will spotlight. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will seek broad awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format fitting quick updates to whatever defines the discourse that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is elegant, heartbroken, and commercial: a grieving man adopts an intelligent companion that unfolds into a deadly partner. The date places it at the front of a heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to replay odd public stunts and short reels that interweaves companionship and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a public title to become an attention spike closer to the initial tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as filmmaker events, with a minimalist tease and a second trailer wave that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The pre-Halloween slot offers Universal room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has shown that a raw, hands-on effects treatment can feel high-value on a lean spend. Expect a viscera-heavy summer horror surge that emphasizes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio launches two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, holding a trusty supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is marketing 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 clearer mandate to serve both franchise faithful and first-timers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign pieces around canon, and monster aesthetics, elements that can boost premium booking interest and fan-forward engagement.

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 sustains Eggers’ run of period horror centered on historical precision and historical speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus’s team has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. The studio’s horror films window into copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a sequence that maximizes both initial urgency and viewer acquisition in the post-theatrical. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with global acquisitions and limited cinema engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in deep cuts, using seasonal hubs, seasonal hubs, and curated rows to extend momentum on the horror cume. Netflix retains agility about Netflix originals and festival pickups, slotting horror entries closer to drop and positioning as event drops rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of tailored theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a selective basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to pick up select projects with acclaimed directors or marquee packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation peaks.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 sequence with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s Get More Info classic title. The pitch is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, recalibrated for modern audio and picture. 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 indicated a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late-season weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday corridor to scale. That positioning has shown results for prestige horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception prompts. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their membership.

IP versus fresh ideas

By tilt, 2026 tilts in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness brand equity. The watch-out, as ever, is staleness. The standing approach is to sell each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is bringing forward character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a European tilt from a rising filmmaker. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the cast-creatives package is steady enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Recent-year comps illuminate the plan. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not block a simultaneous release test from hitting when the brand was compelling. In 2024, precision craft horror exceeded expectations in premium screens. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, builds a path for marketing to link the films through character web and themes and to leave creative active without long breaks.

Craft and creative trends

The production chatter behind the upcoming entries point to a continued preference for in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that foregrounds tone and tension rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft coverage before rolling out a tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gross-out texture, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta refresh that centers an original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster work and world-building, which align with convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that sing on PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. 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 heftier brand moves. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the menu of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth persists.

Q1 into Q2 seed summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

End of summer through fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited advance reveals that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and holiday card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s machine mate becomes something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: atmospheric 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 struggle to survive on a cut-off island as the chain of command upends and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fear, built on Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. 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 setup that explores the terror of a child’s unreliable point of view. Rating: rating pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed and name-above-title spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that targets in-vogue horror tropes and true crime preoccupations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. 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 surges, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a young family anchored to old terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: forthcoming. 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 era-accurate language and ancient menace. Rating: TBA. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 and why now

Three operational forces define this lineup. First, production that paused or rearranged in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work meme-ready beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

The slot calculus is real. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, making room for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will compete across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to 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. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient screen counts, 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 dimensionality, 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.

A Promising 2026

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is recognizable IP where it plays, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the fear sell the seats.