Antediluvian Dread rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing Oct 2025 on major streaming services

An unnerving spiritual horror tale from narrative craftsman / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an forgotten dread when newcomers become proxies in a dark maze. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving narrative of perseverance and old world terror that will reshape genre cinema this spooky time. Crafted by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and tone-heavy cinema piece follows five people who awaken imprisoned in a isolated structure under the unfriendly manipulation of Kyra, a haunted figure consumed by a timeless holy text monster. Steel yourself to be captivated by a filmic event that weaves together intense horror with legendary tales, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a time-honored element in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is turned on its head when the malevolences no longer emerge outside the characters, but rather from deep inside. This portrays the shadowy part of the cast. The result is a harrowing identity crisis where the tension becomes a unforgiving contest between divinity and wickedness.


In a desolate natural abyss, five teens find themselves marooned under the dark aura and spiritual invasion of a secretive spirit. As the group becomes powerless to resist her influence, marooned and tracked by unknowns indescribable, they are confronted to acknowledge their inner demons while the seconds relentlessly ticks onward toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread surges and partnerships fracture, coercing each survivor to scrutinize their being and the nature of decision-making itself. The threat grow with every passing moment, delivering a cinematic nightmare that intertwines supernatural terror with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to dive into instinctual horror, an entity that existed before mankind, emerging via mental cracks, and testing a spirit that threatens selfhood when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra demanded embodying something past sanity. She is oblivious until the evil takes hold, and that flip is terrifying because it is so private.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing audiences anywhere can experience this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its intro video, which has received over six-figure audience.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, making the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Don’t miss this soul-jarring descent into darkness. Explore *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to see these chilling revelations about our species.


For exclusive trailers, production news, and alerts from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across your socials and visit the official movie site.





U.S. horror’s Turning Point: the year 2025 stateside slate melds biblical-possession ideas, underground frights, plus IP aftershocks

Moving from grit-forward survival fare steeped in ancient scripture through to franchise returns and acutely observed indies, 2025 looks like the genre’s most multifaceted along with carefully orchestrated year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors lay down anchors with known properties, even as streaming platforms pack the fall with unboxed visions as well as legend-coded dread. On the independent axis, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is riding the uplift from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Since Halloween is the prized date, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, yet in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are surgical, accordingly 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: The Return of Prestige Fear

The top end is active. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s pipeline begins the calendar with a statement play: a modernized Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Steered by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. arriving mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside 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 circuit chatter says it has bite.

At summer’s close, Warner’s schedule bows the concluding entry from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This run ups the stakes, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The next entry deepens the tale, builds out the animatronic fear crew, courting teens and the thirty something base. It books December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a close quarters body horror study anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable featuring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No puffed out backstory. No brand fatigue. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Series Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Key Trends

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror returns
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

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

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The approaching Horror Year Ahead: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, plus A stacked Calendar Built For screams

Dek The current scare calendar crams from the jump with a January pile-up, and then carries through the summer months, and continuing into the holidays, balancing brand heft, inventive spins, and data-minded counterweight. Major distributors and platforms are betting on cost discipline, box-office-first windows, and influencer-ready assets that shape these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has shown itself to be the bankable release in studio lineups, a pillar that can surge when it clicks and still cushion the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reminded buyers that mid-range scare machines can galvanize social chatter, 2024 sustained momentum with filmmaker-forward plays and sleeper breakouts. The upswing rolled into the 2025 frame, where returns and festival-grade titles showed there is a lane for several lanes, from series extensions to one-and-done originals that perform internationally. The end result for 2026 is a lineup that feels more orchestrated than usual across companies, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of brand names and original hooks, and a reinvigorated stance on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on paid VOD and home platforms.

Buyers contend the horror lane now operates like a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can roll out on a wide range of weekends, generate a tight logline for spots and shorts, and overperform with demo groups that show up on opening previews and return through the week two if the feature connects. Emerging from a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 mapping reflects assurance in that setup. The year launches with a thick January block, then uses spring and early summer for balance, while making space for a October build that pushes into Halloween and beyond. The grid also underscores the deeper integration of arthouse labels and subscription services that can build gradually, spark evangelism, and scale up at the precise moment.

A reinforcing pattern is brand strategy across brand ecosystems and veteran brands. Big banners are not just producing another installment. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a headline quality, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a fresh attitude or a star attachment that anchors a next entry to a foundational era. At the simultaneously, the auteurs behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into on-set craft, on-set effects and distinct locales. That mix affords the 2026 slate a robust balance of recognition and surprise, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount defines the early cadence with two headline entries that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the focus, signaling it as both a succession moment and a heritage-centered relationship-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the creative posture hints at a classic-referencing bent without retreading the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Watch for a push anchored in classic imagery, character-first teases, and a two-beat trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever rules the social talk that spring.

Universal has three clear lanes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is clean, melancholic, and commercial: a grieving man sets up an virtual partner that escalates into a murderous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on creepy live activations and micro spots that interlaces love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a official title to become an attention spike closer to the first trailer. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. The filmmaker’s films are treated as director events, with a hinting teaser and a second beat that define feel without revealing the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has long shown that a flesh-and-blood, on-set effects led execution can feel top-tier on a controlled budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror hit that emphasizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio mounts two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, preserving a dependable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is framing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both loyalists and novices. The fall slot lets Sony to build artifacts around universe detail, and monster design, elements that can increase format premiums and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror built on minute detail and dialect, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already set the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is glowing.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on known playbooks. The studio’s horror films transition to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a structure that fortifies both debut momentum and platform bumps in the downstream. Prime Video will mix catalogue additions with global originals and limited runs in theaters when the data points to it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library curation, using seasonal hubs, holiday hubs, and featured rows to keep attention on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps flexible about internal projects and festival grabs, securing horror entries closer to drop and eventizing arrivals with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a staged of focused cinema runs and prompt platform moves that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a situational basis. The platform has proven amenable to invest in select projects with recognized filmmakers or star packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation builds.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 pipeline with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is direct: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, retooled for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, managing the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the December frame to scale. That positioning has been successful for arthouse horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception justifies. Watch 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 in concert, using mini theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchises versus originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate bends toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit cultural cachet. The caveat, as ever, is fatigue. The go-to fix is to package each entry as a new angle. Paramount is spotlighting character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-accented approach from a buzzed-about director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries bring the oxygen. 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 stranded survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the assembly is recognizable enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years announce the playbook. In 2023, a theater-first model that preserved streaming windows did not hamper a hybrid test from thriving when the brand was trusted. In 2024, auteur craft horror surged in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when great post to read they shift POV and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, creates space for marketing to relate entries through cast and motif and to hold creative in the market without hiatuses.

Behind-the-camera trends

The director conversations behind the year’s horror forecast a continued preference for practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that spotlights texture and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta pivot that centers an original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which fit with fan conventions and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel must-have. Look for trailers that foreground precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that play in premium auditoriums.

Annual flow

January is packed. 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 moody palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Early-year through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now supports 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a late-September window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a minimalist tease strategy and limited previews that trade in concept over detail.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s AI companion becomes something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

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 collide with a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: mood-led 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 prickly boss scramble to survive on a lonely island as the power balance of power turns and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to fright, grounded in Cronin’s material craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting premise that plays with the panic of a child’s shaky senses. Rating: to be announced. Production: wrapped. 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 reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that pokes at present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household entangled with long-buried horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBD. Production: ongoing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and elemental fear. Rating: undetermined. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the moment is 2026

Three pragmatic forces frame this lineup. First, production that stalled or shifted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic 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, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Calendar math also matters. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, making room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror 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 take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 midrange-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, 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 beat and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing 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 like the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound, and visuals 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

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is name recognition where it counts, new vision where it lands, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, protect the mystery, and let the gasps sell the seats.