Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a fear soaked shocker, premiering Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

This bone-chilling supernatural fright fest from cinematographer / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an mythic entity when guests become vehicles in a malevolent struggle. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing depiction of continuance and archaic horror that will reconstruct horror this spooky time. Crafted by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and atmospheric tale follows five people who are stirred stranded in a remote shack under the malevolent dominion of Kyra, a central character occupied by a timeless sacrosanct terror. Prepare to be ensnared by a cinematic spectacle that blends raw fear with arcane tradition, arriving on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a recurring fixture in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is inverted when the beings no longer arise outside the characters, but rather inside them. This depicts the most terrifying part of these individuals. The result is a riveting internal warfare where the plotline becomes a soul-crushing tug-of-war between innocence and sin.


In a wilderness-stricken backcountry, five souls find themselves isolated under the possessive influence and haunting of a unidentified being. As the characters becomes vulnerable to evade her will, left alone and tormented by spirits beyond comprehension, they are pushed to wrestle with their emotional phantoms while the deathwatch ruthlessly counts down toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear surges and partnerships splinter, driving each figure to reconsider their self and the nature of free will itself. The intensity grow with every beat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that combines unearthly horror with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to dive into pure dread, an power from prehistory, manifesting in inner turmoil, and challenging a evil that strips down our being when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra meant channeling something outside normal anguish. She is insensitive until the evil takes hold, and that transformation is soul-crushing because it is so unshielded.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—allowing users across the world can be part of this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its original promo, which has racked up over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, delivering the story to scare fans abroad.


Make sure to see this gripping journey into fear. Face *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to explore these terrifying truths about mankind.


For behind-the-scenes access, set experiences, and news straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursed across media channels and visit the movie portal.





American horror’s Turning Point: the year 2025 domestic schedule weaves ancient-possession motifs, festival-born jolts, together with franchise surges

Kicking off with survivor-centric dread inspired by old testament echoes and extending to legacy revivals set beside acutely observed indies, 2025 appears poised to be the genre’s most multifaceted combined with deliberate year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio majors are anchoring the year through proven series, concurrently premium streamers prime the fall with emerging auteurs paired with legend-coded dread. On the festival side, the art-house flank is riding the echoes from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and now, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are exacting, as a result 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s slate leads off the quarter with a confident swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, instead in a current-day frame. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. dated for 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 adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Eli Craig directs starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

By late summer, Warner’s pipeline bows the concluding entry from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Next is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: throwback unease, trauma centered writing, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The ante is higher this round, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The return delves further into myth, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It posts in December, securing the winter cap.

Platform Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a sealed box body horror arc 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 reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also rising is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, 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 terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No heavy handed lore. No continuity burden. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent 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. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, under Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Trend Lines

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forward View: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

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 Horror cycle: Sequels, fresh concepts, as well as A loaded Calendar Built For Scares

Dek: The emerging genre season builds from day one with a January cluster, subsequently carries through the warm months, and continuing into the holiday frame, fusing franchise firepower, inventive spins, and smart counterweight. Studios with streamers are doubling down on responsible budgets, cinema-first plans, and shareable marketing that frame genre releases into culture-wide discussion.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror has solidified as the sturdy lever in studio calendars, a vertical that can scale when it lands and still buffer the losses when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year reassured strategy teams that low-to-mid budget genre plays can lead the national conversation, 2024 maintained heat with festival-darling auteurs and word-of-mouth wins. The energy flowed into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries made clear there is capacity for a variety of tones, from sequel tracks to fresh IP that perform internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a calendar that seems notably aligned across the field, with purposeful groupings, a balance of legacy names and new pitches, and a re-energized attention on box-office windows that drive downstream revenue on premium home window and streaming.

Buyers contend the horror lane now performs as a swing piece on the programming map. Horror can premiere on nearly any frame, supply a sharp concept for trailers and short-form placements, and overperform with patrons that come out on previews Thursday and stay strong through the subsequent weekend if the feature pays off. On the heels of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 pattern shows confidence in that setup. The calendar kicks off with a thick January corridor, then turns to spring and early summer for alternate plays, while reserving space for a fall run that flows toward spooky season and into post-Halloween. The calendar also underscores the greater integration of specialized labels and streaming partners that can stage a platform run, grow buzz, and move wide at the right moment.

A companion trend is brand management across linked properties and legacy franchises. The companies are not just pushing another continuation. They are working to present lore continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a title design that announces a reframed mood or a talent selection that ties a new entry to a foundational era. At the very same time, the creative leads behind the top original plays are prioritizing physical effects work, on-set effects and site-specific worlds. That fusion delivers the 2026 slate a confident blend of known notes and freshness, which is the formula for international play.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount establishes early momentum with two centerpiece releases that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the spine, setting it up as both a passing of the torch and a classic-mode character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach announces a throwback-friendly angle without retreading the last two entries’ sibling arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive leaning on brand visuals, first images of characters, and a tease cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will generate mass reach through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick switches to whatever dominates the conversation that spring.

Universal has three discrete lanes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, sorrow-tinged, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man installs an digital partner that turns into a fatal companion. The date locates it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the studio’s marketing likely to revisit uncanny live moments and short-cut promos that melds longing and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a official title to become an earned moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele projects are sold as signature events, with a teaser that holds back and a later creative that signal tone without plot the concept. The pre-Halloween slot opens a lane to maximize 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has established that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered approach can feel big on a disciplined budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror charge that emphasizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio deploys two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, maintaining a dependable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is positioning as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both longtime followers and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around canon, and creature effects, elements that can fuel premium booking interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

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 advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in immersive craft and language, this time circling werewolf lore. The imprint has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is supportive.

Digital platform strategies

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre slate head to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a tiered path that boosts both opening-weekend urgency and subscription bumps in the later phase. Prime Video will mix catalogue additions with worldwide entries and select theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library engagement, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and curated strips to stretch the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix retains agility about Netflix originals and festival acquisitions, finalizing horror entries toward the drop and turning into events rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a staged of focused cinema runs and swift platform pivots that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key 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 a case-by-case stance on horror on a situational basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to invest in select projects with top-tier auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is tight: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, modernized for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a theatrical-first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, marshalling the project through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas corridor to expand. That positioning has delivered for arthouse horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception merits. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using boutique theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By tilt, 2026 tilts in favor of the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The potential drawback, as ever, is overexposure. The pragmatic answer is to frame each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is spotlighting character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French sensibility from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented 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 the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the configuration is familiar enough to drive advance ticketing and advance-audience nights.

Rolling three-year comps announce the template. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was powerful. In 2024, art-forward horror exceeded expectations in PLF. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they shift POV and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward 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, permits marketing to relate entries through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets in-market without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 slate signal a continued preference for tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that spotlights unease and texture rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-correct language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and department features before rolling out a teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and produces shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta recalibration that centers its original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster aesthetics and world-building, which are ideal for convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that highlight disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is heavy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid headline IP. The month wraps 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 stiff, but the mix of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a opaque tease strategy and limited disclosures that elevate concept over story.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s virtual companion grows into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot 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 encounter a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 abrasive boss battle to survive on a cut-off island as the chain of command turns and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to chill, based on Cronin’s hands-on craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting narrative that threads the dread through a youngster’s uncertain POV. Rating: to be announced. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-financed and headline-actor led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A spoof revival that targets present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new household snared by returning horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: closely held. Rating: forthcoming. Production: active. 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 time-true diction and ancient menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026, why now

Three workable forces frame this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or reshuffled in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming drops. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on shareable moments from test screenings, managed scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will share space across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, 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 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 value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

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 reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, smart allocations, 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, sound field, and picture 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand equity where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival check over here pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.