Primordial Dread Ascends within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror feature, launching October 2025 across global platforms

An terrifying spectral suspense story from writer / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an archaic force when unfamiliar people become vehicles in a demonic maze. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing saga of survival and primeval wickedness that will reimagine scare flicks this scare season. Crafted by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and tone-heavy cinema piece follows five individuals who suddenly rise caught in a wilderness-bound shack under the dark influence of Kyra, a central character possessed by a prehistoric biblical force. Steel yourself to be seized by a theatrical display that fuses deep-seated panic with mystical narratives, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a time-honored pillar in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is redefined when the forces no longer originate from elsewhere, but rather from their psyche. This depicts the most primal shade of the cast. The result is a enthralling psychological battle where the suspense becomes a intense battle between divinity and wickedness.


In a remote wild, five individuals find themselves imprisoned under the ghastly sway and curse of a secretive person. As the companions becomes submissive to resist her grasp, marooned and pursued by terrors impossible to understand, they are compelled to face their raw vulnerabilities while the timeline ruthlessly draws closer toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety escalates and links break, pressuring each individual to rethink their true nature and the notion of personal agency itself. The intensity intensify with every tick, delivering a horror experience that weaves together otherworldly suspense with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to dive into primitive panic, an entity older than civilization itself, working through human fragility, and questioning a evil that dismantles free will when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant channeling something past sanity. She is oblivious until the haunting manifests, and that shift is gut-wrenching because it is so personal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—giving subscribers globally can dive into this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its initial teaser, which has gathered over notable views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, bringing the film to global fright lovers.


Join this life-altering journey into fear. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this launch day to uncover these haunting secrets about the psyche.


For film updates, set experiences, and reveals from behind the lens, follow @YACMovie across entertainment pages and visit youngandcursed.com.





U.S. horror’s major pivot: calendar year 2025 stateside slate blends old-world possession, microbudget gut-punches, and IP aftershocks

Moving from pressure-cooker survival tales saturated with ancient scripture and including IP renewals alongside focused festival visions, 2025 is tracking to be the genre’s most multifaceted along with blueprinted year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. major banners stabilize the year with franchise anchors, as premium streamers flood the fall with unboxed visions as well as legend-coded dread. On the independent axis, the art-house flank is propelled by the afterglow of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are methodical, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige fear returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s slate opens the year with a risk-forward move: a reimagined Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, inside today’s landscape. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. targeting mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Directed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer fades, the WB camp rolls out the capstone from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: old school creep, trauma as theme, plus otherworld rules that chill. This pass pushes higher, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It arrives in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a body horror duet pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Conceived and directed 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 night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped 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. That is a savvy move. No puffed out backstory. No canon weight. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Franchise Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, led by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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 goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror comes roaring back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

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

What’s Next: Fall stack and winter swing card

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The next scare year to come: brand plays, universe starters, and also A busy Calendar aimed at chills

Dek The upcoming scare cycle crowds from the jump with a January logjam, thereafter rolls through summer corridors, and far into the holiday stretch, mixing series momentum, fresh ideas, and calculated counter-scheduling. Studios with streamers are committing to lean spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and platform-native promos that transform these offerings into culture-wide discussion.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has emerged as the dependable tool in annual schedules, a pillar that can spike when it lands and still limit the losses when it falls short. After the 2023 year reminded leaders that responsibly budgeted horror vehicles can shape cultural conversation, 2024 carried the beat with director-led heat and slow-burn breakouts. The tailwind moved into 2025, where re-entries and festival-grade titles underscored there is demand for diverse approaches, from ongoing IP entries to original features that translate worldwide. The end result for the 2026 slate is a grid that looks unusually coordinated across players, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of established brands and novel angles, and a sharpened priority on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on premium home window and subscription services.

Buyers contend the horror lane now performs as a utility player on the release plan. The genre can arrive on open real estate, yield a clear pitch for promo reels and reels, and outpace with crowds that turn out on advance nights and stick through the next weekend if the release pays off. Emerging from a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 cadence underscores conviction in that equation. The slate rolls out with a crowded January block, then turns to spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while saving space for a September to October window that flows toward the Halloween corridor and into November. The calendar also illustrates the continuing integration of indie arms and streamers that can stage a platform run, ignite recommendations, and move wide at the proper time.

A parallel macro theme is brand strategy across shared IP webs and storied titles. The companies are not just releasing another next film. They are working to present continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a tonal shift or a lead change that connects a upcoming film to a classic era. At the alongside this, the visionaries behind the most anticipated originals are leaning into tactile craft, on-set effects and specific settings. That pairing delivers 2026 a solid mix of known notes and unexpected turns, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount opens strong with two big-ticket entries that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the lead, marketing it as both a relay and a back-to-basics relationship-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance suggests a nostalgia-forward mode without repeating the last two entries’ sibling arc. Watch for a push built on franchise iconography, first-look character reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will double down on. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase wide appeal through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick redirects to whatever drives pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three unique projects. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is tidy, somber, and concept-forward: a grieving man sets up an digital partner that mutates into a perilous partner. The date puts it at the front of a thick month, with the marketing arm likely to echo strange in-person beats and micro spots that interlaces longing and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a branding reveal to become an earned moment closer to the debut look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His projects are treated as marquee events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later trailer push that shape mood without giving away the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date affords Universal to fill 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has consistently shown that a in-your-face, hands-on effects approach can feel high-value on a efficient spend. Look for a hard-R summer horror charge that pushes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio places two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, extending a dependable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is framing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both diehards and newcomers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign creative around lore, and creature effects, elements that can fuel PLF interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions 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 driven by careful craft and historical speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s slate head to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a tiered path that maximizes both launch urgency and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video pairs catalogue additions with global acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog discovery, using timely promos, spooky hubs, and editorial rows to prolong the run on lifetime take. Netflix plays opportunist about in-house releases and festival snaps, timing horror entries near their drops and staging as events premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a paired of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be critical 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+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown appetite to invest in select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for sustained usage when the genre conversation heats up.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is no-nonsense: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, reimagined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas window to expand. That positioning has shown results for craft-driven horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception allows. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using boutique theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Known brands versus new stories

By skew, 2026 is weighted toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on name recognition. The question, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is elevating relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-accented approach from a rising filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the assembly is known enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night turnout.

The last three-year set announce the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not preclude a same-day experiment from winning when the brand was strong. In 2024, auteur craft horror over-performed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reorient and increase ambition. 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 two-film strategy, with chapters filmed consecutively, lets marketing to tie installments through character spine and themes and to leave creative active without extended gaps.

Production craft signals

The director conversations behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued turn toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights mood and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in deep-dive features and artisan spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and generates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta reframe that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature work and production design, which favor fan-con activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel essential. Look for trailers that center fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that shine in top rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is jammed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid heavier IP. 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 thick, but the spread of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Q1 into Q2 stage summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still bridges into this content Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a opaque tease strategy and limited plot reveals that put concept first.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can win the holiday when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s digital partner escalates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 work to survive on a isolated island as the hierarchy swivels and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to fear, grounded in Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting piece that filters its scares through a child’s flickering subjective lens. Rating: pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-scale and celebrity-led spirit-world suspense.

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 riffs on hot-button genre motifs and true crime fascinations. Rating: TBA. Production: shoot planned 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 ignites, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a another family lashed to ancient dread. Rating: pending. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for classic survival-horror tone over action fireworks. Rating: undetermined. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: pending. Production: continuing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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-faithful speech and primordial menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three grounded forces drive this lineup. First, production that slowed or migrated in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly 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 debuts. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest meme-ready beats from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, making room for genre entries that can control a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first surprise 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, sonics, and camera work 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is recognizable IP where it plays, 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the chills sell the seats.