Primordial Evil rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

This hair-raising spiritual suspense story from storyteller / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an primordial dread when unknowns become victims in a supernatural contest. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving depiction of resilience and primeval wickedness that will reimagine the fear genre this cool-weather season. Guided by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and shadowy thriller follows five lost souls who emerge confined in a cut-off dwelling under the sinister dominion of Kyra, a cursed figure occupied by a millennia-old sacrosanct terror. Arm yourself to be seized by a visual adventure that fuses bone-deep fear with spiritual backstory, releasing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a well-established element in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is reversed when the beings no longer appear from external sources, but rather from their psyche. This portrays the most sinister version of all involved. The result is a riveting internal warfare where the emotions becomes a merciless face-off between innocence and sin.


In a bleak terrain, five friends find themselves marooned under the sinister influence and overtake of a haunted person. As the victims becomes submissive to fight her control, isolated and hunted by powers unfathomable, they are driven to face their worst nightmares while the doomsday meter coldly ticks toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion mounts and partnerships fracture, requiring each individual to contemplate their self and the nature of liberty itself. The consequences escalate with every breath, delivering a chilling narrative that blends ghostly evil with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to explore primitive panic, an threat rooted in antiquity, filtering through psychological breaks, and navigating a curse that challenges autonomy when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra required summoning something deeper than fear. She is unaware until the control shifts, and that conversion is emotionally raw because it is so emotional.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering users anywhere can experience this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has earned over massive response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, exporting the fear to global fright lovers.


Do not miss this cinematic exploration of dread. Join *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to explore these terrifying truths about the mind.


For teasers, behind-the-scenes content, and reveals from the creators, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across your socials and visit youngandcursed.com.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule melds ancient-possession motifs, art-house nightmares, together with series shake-ups

Spanning survivor-centric dread drawn from ancient scripture to legacy revivals in concert with incisive indie visions, 2025 is shaping up as the genre’s most multifaceted plus carefully orchestrated year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. leading studios plant stakes across the year with established lines, in tandem streamers stack the fall with debut heat alongside ancient terrors. On the independent axis, the independent cohort is catching the echoes of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, yet in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are intentional, as a result 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium genre swings back

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s distribution arm begins the calendar with a marquee bet: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Booked into mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Led by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. rolls out the capstone from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson returns, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: vintage toned fear, trauma explicitly handled, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The bar is raised this go, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It lands in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a tight space body horror vignette including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

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 bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No bloated mythology. No series drag. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festivals as Springboards

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

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Signals and Trends

Myth turns 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 is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror ascends again
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical Is Now 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 still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming scare year to come: brand plays, non-franchise titles, plus A Crowded Calendar tailored for frights

Dek: The incoming scare cycle lines up early with a January traffic jam, before it flows through the warm months, and deep into the December corridor, mixing marquee clout, fresh ideas, and strategic calendar placement. The major players are focusing on lean spends, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that elevate the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror sector has become the most reliable swing in studio slates, a category that can scale when it hits and still protect the exposure when it misses. After the 2023 year reassured leaders that mid-range horror vehicles can galvanize audience talk, 2024 kept energy high with signature-voice projects and stealth successes. The run extended into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and filmmaker-prestige bets showed there is a lane for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to one-and-done originals that resonate abroad. The sum for the 2026 slate is a roster that seems notably aligned across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a mix of legacy names and untested plays, and a sharpened stance on exhibition windows that drive downstream revenue on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Buyers contend the horror lane now acts as a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can debut on virtually any date, provide a quick sell for marketing and reels, and outperform with ticket buyers that line up on preview nights and stay strong through the follow-up frame if the movie hits. Emerging from a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence demonstrates assurance in that logic. The slate begins with a weighty January corridor, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a late-year stretch that runs into spooky season and past Halloween. The arrangement also shows the deeper integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across ongoing universes and classic IP. The companies are not just making another return. They are moving to present story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a title presentation that announces a new tone or a talent selection that connects a incoming chapter to a original cycle. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the most anticipated originals are favoring tactile craft, physical gags and concrete locations. That blend offers 2026 a smart balance of assurance and shock, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount defines the early cadence with two prominent plays that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the spine, steering it as both a succession moment and a DNA-forward character-first story. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture announces a memory-charged angle without recycling the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Anticipate a campaign built on legacy iconography, character-first teases, and a tease cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back 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 creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will generate mass reach through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick switches to whatever shapes horror talk that spring.

Universal has three specific lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, grief-rooted, and high-concept: a grieving man sets up an intelligent companion that turns into a harmful mate. The date positions it at the front of a packed window, with marketing at Universal likely to revisit creepy live activations and micro spots that blurs intimacy and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title drop to become an headline beat closer to the initial promo. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs check over here October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s pictures are branded as auteur events, with a concept-forward tease and a follow-up trailer set that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The pre-Halloween slot allows Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a tactile, hands-on effects method can feel elevated on a efficient spend. Expect a hard-R summer horror blast that maximizes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, continuing a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is marketing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around lore, and monster craft, elements that can stoke format premiums and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on immersive craft and dialect, this time set against lycan legends. Focus’s team has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is warm.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. The studio’s horror films shift to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a cadence that optimizes both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up momentum in the later window. Prime Video pairs licensed content with worldwide entries and targeted theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using curated hubs, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to prolong the run on overall cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about originals and festival wins, timing horror entries tight to release and making event-like debuts with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a laddered of targeted theatrical exposure and rapid platforming that translates talk to trials. That will play 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 selective basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is straightforward: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, refined for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late-season weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, managing the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then using the holiday slot to go wider. That positioning has shown results for elevated genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception supports. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using limited theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit legacy awareness. The risk, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to present each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is foregrounding character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean restart 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.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the configuration is recognizable enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps make sense of the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept streaming intact did not prevent a parallel release from performing when the brand was robust. In 2024, auteur craft horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reorient and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot in tandem, lets marketing to bridge entries through character spine and themes and to keep assets alive without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The director conversations behind these films telegraph a continued emphasis on material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that highlights atmosphere and fear rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in feature stories and craft spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and gathers shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta reframe that centers an original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster work and world-building, which favor convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel key. Look for trailers that accent pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that work in PLF.

Annual flow

January is busy. 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 headline IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the mix of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth endures.

Pre-summer months prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited asset reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s synthetic partner unfolds into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: fog-and-fear adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss try to survive on a uninhabited island as the chain of command turns and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to nightmare, based on Cronin’s physical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 closed-door haunting piece that channels the fear through a little one’s unsteady internal vantage. Rating: TBD. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A spoof revival that riffs on present-day genre chatter and true-crime obsessions. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a different family lashed to old terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A fresh restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward true survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBA. Production: in progress. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 dread. Rating: pending. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 grounded forces define this lineup. First, production that slowed or migrated in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming drops. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate clippable moments from test screenings, precision scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will compete across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

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 strong PLF footprints 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 navigate here 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, 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 cadence and diversity. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, lean footprints, 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 grain, acoustics, 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 Shapes Up Strong

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is franchise muscle where it helps, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for 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, roll out exact trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.