Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

One spine-tingling spiritual suspense story from scriptwriter / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an mythic horror when unknowns become puppets in a dark ritual. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing depiction of living through and old world terror that will resculpt scare flicks this fall. Helmed by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and atmospheric thriller follows five lost souls who emerge confined in a remote wooden structure under the aggressive dominion of Kyra, a mysterious girl consumed by a 2,000-year-old sacred-era entity. Anticipate to be immersed by a visual venture that combines raw fear with folklore, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a time-honored pillar in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is challenged when the beings no longer come externally, but rather inside their minds. This marks the grimmest aspect of the cast. The result is a intense internal warfare where the intensity becomes a constant contest between purity and corruption.


In a desolate no-man's-land, five campers find themselves imprisoned under the possessive control and grasp of a uncanny female figure. As the protagonists becomes unable to fight her influence, severed and preyed upon by terrors unnamable, they are forced to battle their inner horrors while the seconds harrowingly ticks onward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust swells and links collapse, requiring each figure to reconsider their values and the nature of freedom of choice itself. The risk intensify with every passing moment, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that fuses occult fear with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to explore ancestral fear, an force that predates humanity, working through human fragility, and highlighting a power that erodes the self when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra was centered on something past sanity. She is blind until the spirit seizes her, and that turn is deeply unsettling because it is so personal.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be available for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—offering subscribers no matter where they are can dive into this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its original promo, which has pulled in over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, making the film to scare fans abroad.


Make sure to see this mind-warping ride through nightmares. Explore *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to see these evil-rooted truths about the psyche.


For behind-the-scenes access, production news, and announcements from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across online outlets and visit the movie’s homepage.





American horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 across markets U.S. Slate interlaces ancient-possession motifs, art-house nightmares, stacked beside tentpole growls

From last-stand terror drawn from old testament echoes as well as installment follow-ups paired with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is lining up as horror’s most layered in tandem with blueprinted year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. top-tier distributors plant stakes across the year using marquee IP, concurrently SVOD players flood the fall with debut heat together with mythic dread. Meanwhile, indie storytellers is catching the uplift from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, however this time, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are surgical, hence 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium genre swings back

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

Universal’s pipeline opens the year with an audacious swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Led by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. Slated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

When summer fades, the WB camp releases the last chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline 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 follows. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: nostalgic menace, trauma centered writing, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time, the stakes are raised, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, speaking to teens and older millennials. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Digital Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The threat is psychological first, wired 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. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. That is a savvy move. No bloated canon. No legacy baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, from Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Trend Lines

Ancient myth goes wide
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

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.

Platform originals gain bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forecast: Autumn density and winter pivot

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

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 goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The upcoming scare year to come: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, paired with A busy Calendar aimed at jolts

Dek: The current horror cycle lines up right away with a January glut, and then rolls through summer corridors, and well into the festive period, weaving series momentum, new concepts, and well-timed release strategy. Studios and streamers are committing to tight budgets, big-screen-first runs, and influencer-ready assets that pivot these offerings into water-cooler talk.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The field has grown into the bankable option in annual schedules, a space that can accelerate when it breaks through and still hedge the liability when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year reminded studio brass that mid-range shockers can command pop culture, 2024 held pace with festival-darling auteurs and word-of-mouth wins. The carry moved into 2025, where resurrections and prestige plays highlighted there is a lane for several lanes, from brand follow-ups to director-led originals that scale internationally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a grid that is strikingly coherent across distributors, with clear date clusters, a pairing of marquee IP and new packages, and a recommitted commitment on exclusive windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium rental and digital services.

Buyers contend the category now slots in as a swing piece on the programming map. The genre can premiere on almost any weekend, yield a sharp concept for marketing and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with fans that line up on early shows and keep coming through the week two if the entry connects. After a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 configuration telegraphs comfort in that approach. The calendar opens with a thick January schedule, then taps spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while carving room for a late-year stretch that extends to All Hallows period and beyond. The grid also includes the expanded integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can stage a platform run, generate chatter, and broaden at the precise moment.

A companion trend is franchise tending across unified worlds and long-running brands. Studio teams are not just greenlighting another entry. They are aiming to frame lineage with a occasion, whether that is a title design that suggests a reframed mood or a star attachment that bridges a next film to a heyday. At the very same time, the visionaries behind the most watched originals are prioritizing material texture, real effects and concrete locations. That alloy offers the 2026 slate a strong blend of brand comfort and newness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount sets the tone early with two centerpiece releases that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve see here Campbell back at the core, presenting it as both a baton pass and a return-to-roots character-centered film. Production is active in Atlanta, and the narrative stance telegraphs a heritage-honoring treatment without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign centered on iconic art, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will stress. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will go after mainstream recognition through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever tops genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tidy, tragic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man implements an machine companion that evolves into a dangerous lover. The date locates it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s marketing likely to bring back creepy live activations and short reels that hybridizes love and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken 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 preserves a public title to become an attention spike closer to the first look. The timing hands 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 secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s work are sold as director events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second trailer wave that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date allows Universal to saturate 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, in-camera leaning style can feel premium on a mid-range budget. Look for a splatter summer horror charge that centers international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio deploys two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, keeping a evergreen supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is selling as a fresh 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 focus to serve both longtime followers and newcomers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build marketing units around canon, and monster design, elements that can boost IMAX and PLF uptake and convention buzz.

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 continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by obsessive craft and textual fidelity, this time focused on werewolf legend. The imprint has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre entries move to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ordering that boosts both FOMO and subscription bumps in the tail. Prime Video stitches together outside acquisitions with worldwide buys and limited runs in theaters when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog discovery, using seasonal hubs, holiday hubs, and handpicked rows to maximize the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix retains agility about originals and festival snaps, confirming horror entries closer to drop and staging as events rollouts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a paired of selective theatrical runs and swift platform pivots that turns chatter to conversion. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a discrete basis. The platform has signaled readiness to pick up select projects with acclaimed directors or star packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 slate with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is uncomplicated: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, retooled for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then using the year-end corridor to widen. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-driven genre with award possibilities. 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 plausible forecast is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception encourages. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited runs to fuel evangelism that fuels this website their paid base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate bends toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to package each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is emphasizing character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-accented approach from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated 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 rests on period texture and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the cast-creatives package is steady enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Three-year comps outline the strategy. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not block a simultaneous release test from succeeding when the brand was powerful. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror hit big in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reorient and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, lets marketing to connect the chapters through personae and themes and to continue assets in field without long breaks.

Production craft signals

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror indicate a continued move toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that centers mood and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that withholds plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature and environment design, which work nicely for fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel primary. Look for trailers that spotlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar cadence

January is packed. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month buttons 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 formidable, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Pre-summer months seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited plot reveals that center concept over reveals.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

Film-by-film briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s intelligent companion unfolds into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 severe boss fight to survive on a desolate island as the power balance swivels and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fright, rooted in Cronin’s practical effects and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting story that explores the chill of a child’s tricky impressions. Rating: forthcoming. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult 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 parody return that needles present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: production booked 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 bursts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further extends again, with a unlucky family linked to ancient dread. Rating: TBA. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on pure survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: undetermined. Production: proceeding. 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-faithful speech and raw menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces define this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-sequenced in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest repeatable beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

The slot calculus is real. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 left-field winner 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. Expect a healthy 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 array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, audio design, 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.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is name recognition where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.