Primordial Dread returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, landing Oct 2025 across major platforms

One eerie supernatural suspense story from creator / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an prehistoric nightmare when newcomers become tools in a satanic ordeal. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching tale of staying alive and primeval wickedness that will reshape terror storytelling this Halloween season. Crafted by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and shadowy film follows five young adults who wake up imprisoned in a far-off structure under the oppressive sway of Kyra, a central character inhabited by a millennia-old biblical force. Get ready to be seized by a filmic adventure that merges gut-punch terror with timeless legends, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a classic concept in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is twisted when the beings no longer originate from an outside force, but rather from within. This embodies the grimmest shade of the victims. The result is a gripping emotional conflict where the suspense becomes a merciless face-off between light and darkness.


In a forsaken wilderness, five teens find themselves marooned under the ghastly aura and haunting of a haunted apparition. As the team becomes defenseless to combat her dominion, stranded and stalked by evils beyond reason, they are compelled to confront their inner horrors while the countdown mercilessly ticks onward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia grows and alliances erode, urging each member to examine their essence and the notion of self-determination itself. The danger escalate with every heartbeat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that harmonizes ghostly evil with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to awaken deep fear, an power before modern man, emerging via our fears, and navigating a presence that peels away humanity when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra asked for exploring something rooted in terror. She is unseeing until the takeover begins, and that transition is deeply unsettling because it is so personal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—giving horror lovers worldwide can face this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its initial teaser, which has attracted over 100,000 views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, making the film to international horror buffs.


Don’t miss this life-altering spiral into evil. Join *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to uncover these terrifying truths about inner darkness.


For sneak peeks, on-set glimpses, and updates from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Facebook and TikTok and visit the movie portal.





U.S. horror’s major pivot: the year 2025 U.S. rollouts weaves Mythic Possession, microbudget gut-punches, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Moving from grit-forward survival fare suffused with biblical myth through to legacy revivals together with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated plus strategic year in recent memory.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Major studios stabilize the year by way of signature titles, simultaneously SVOD players stack the fall with unboxed visions as well as ancestral chills. On another front, the artisan tier is riding the tailwinds from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, though in this cycle, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are targeted, so 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: The Return of Prestige Fear

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal Pictures lights the fuse with a bold swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Booked into mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Steered by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

When summer tapers, the Warner Bros. banner releases the last chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: nostalgic menace, trauma explicitly handled, with ghostly inner logic. This time, the stakes are raised, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, builds out the animatronic fear crew, speaking to teens and older millennials. It posts in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Firsts: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters bet on familiarity, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Also rising is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and directed 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. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this entry turns 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.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a clever angle. No bloated mythology. No legacy baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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 dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror retakes ground
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The next fright cycle: brand plays, original films, and also A loaded Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek The arriving terror cycle crowds from day one with a January bottleneck, subsequently rolls through summer, and carrying into the winter holidays, mixing name recognition, original angles, and smart counterplay. Studio marketers and platforms are committing to mid-range economics, theater-first strategies, and social-driven marketing that shape these pictures into mainstream chatter.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This category has become the most reliable swing in release plans, a category that can grow when it connects and still protect the drag when it stumbles. After the 2023 year proved to decision-makers that cost-conscious horror vehicles can drive audience talk, 2024 sustained momentum with auteur-driven buzzy films and word-of-mouth wins. The trend moved into the 2025 frame, where revivals and critical darlings highlighted there is space for many shades, from brand follow-ups to original one-offs that export nicely. The sum for the 2026 slate is a slate that is strikingly coherent across companies, with mapped-out bands, a equilibrium of established brands and fresh ideas, and a reinvigorated commitment on release windows that feed downstream value on premium digital and streaming.

Planners observe the genre now slots in as a utility player on the rollout map. Horror can bow on virtually any date, deliver a simple premise for previews and short-form placements, and outperform with moviegoers that show up on advance nights and stick through the second frame if the picture fires. On the heels of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 plan exhibits conviction in that equation. The calendar gets underway with a thick January run, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a fall cadence that connects to the Halloween frame and into the next week. The layout also shows the deeper integration of specialty arms and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is brand curation across unified worlds and legacy IP. Studio teams are not just rolling another chapter. They are looking to package brand continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title design that telegraphs a fresh attitude or a cast configuration that reconnects a new entry to a vintage era. At the very same time, the creative leads behind the most watched originals are championing in-camera technique, practical effects and vivid settings. That fusion provides see here the 2026 slate a confident blend of familiarity and newness, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount fires first with two spotlight moves that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the spine, framing it as both a baton pass and a back-to-basics character-first story. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the tonal posture conveys a roots-evoking mode without repeating the last two entries’ sisters thread. Look for a marketing run built on heritage visuals, first images of characters, and a tiered teaser plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will lean on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will pursue mainstream recognition through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format permitting quick switches to whatever leads the discourse that spring.

Universal has three separate lanes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tidy, somber, and commercial: a grieving man activates an synthetic partner that grows into a deadly partner. The date locates it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s team likely to reprise strange in-person beats and short reels that interweaves affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under development 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 branding reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the opening teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His entries are branded as must-see filmmaker statements, with a concept-forward tease and a next wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween runway affords Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has shown that a gritty, practical-first style can feel cinematic on a efficient spend. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that leans hard into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 fans and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around mythos, and monster design, elements that can amplify PLF interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror built on careful craft and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is warm.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform windowing in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a stair-step that maximizes both initial urgency and sub growth in the tail. Prime Video blends outside acquisitions with global originals and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in archive usage, using prominent placements, Halloween hubs, and staff picks to maximize the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival additions, confirming horror entries closer to drop and framing as events debuts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a staged of limited theatrical footprints and short jumps to platform that converts WOM to subscribers. That will matter 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+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to acquire select projects with name filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is curating a 2026 sequence with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, retooled for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the September weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas window to go wider. That positioning has proved effective for prestige horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception allows. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using targeted theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Series vs standalone

By share, 2026 bends toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit fan equity. The caveat, as ever, is staleness. The preferred tactic is to present each entry as a new angle. Paramount is spotlighting character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-accented approach from a buzzed-about director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and director-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is familiar enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Three-year comps frame the model. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept clean windows did not deter a day-date try from delivering when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror rose in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel new when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. 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 two-step approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to cross-link entries through personae and themes and to keep assets alive without pause points.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate telegraph a continued tilt toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that emphasizes texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in feature stories and craft spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta pivot that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to booth activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel key. Look for trailers that center pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is stacked. 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 buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the mix of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Late Q1 and spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts 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 home to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges 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 lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited disclosures that center concept over reveals.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s machine mate turns into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 unyielding boss scramble to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power inverts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 residential haunting premise that explores the fright of a child’s fragile read. Rating: TBD. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-built and A-list fronted haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that pokes at today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 erupts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new clan bound to ancient dread. Rating: pending. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 elemental dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three operational forces inform this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-sequenced in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical 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 releases. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will cluster across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, acoustics, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand heft where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.