Age-old Dread Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled horror feature, launching Oct 2025 on global platforms

An spine-tingling otherworldly shockfest from storyteller / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an archaic nightmare when unrelated individuals become puppets in a diabolical contest. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing story of overcoming and mythic evil that will reconstruct the fear genre this harvest season. Crafted by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and immersive story follows five lost souls who find themselves imprisoned in a secluded house under the unfriendly manipulation of Kyra, a tormented girl claimed by a biblical-era scriptural evil. Be warned to be hooked by a visual spectacle that harmonizes visceral dread with mythic lore, arriving on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a classic tradition in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is inverted when the forces no longer descend from elsewhere, but rather from their psyche. This represents the most terrifying layer of the players. The result is a enthralling identity crisis where the drama becomes a brutal face-off between right and wrong.


In a abandoned woodland, five friends find themselves isolated under the unholy influence and haunting of a shadowy entity. As the group becomes unable to break her rule, stranded and followed by powers unimaginable, they are compelled to reckon with their soulful dreads while the time brutally draws closer toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust intensifies and teams collapse, pressuring each person to question their personhood and the structure of personal agency itself. The hazard escalate with every fleeting time, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that intertwines spiritual fright with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to evoke primal fear, an malevolence that existed before mankind, filtering through soul-level flaws, and navigating a will that questions who we are when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra demanded embodying something rooted in terror. She is insensitive until the evil takes hold, and that shift is deeply unsettling because it is so close.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—delivering households around the globe can be part of this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its original promo, which has gathered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, making the film to international horror buffs.


Witness this bone-rattling ride through nightmares. Stream *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to experience these chilling revelations about the mind.


For featurettes, on-set glimpses, and press updates via the production team, follow @YACFilm across Facebook and TikTok and visit the film’s website.





Today’s horror pivotal crossroads: the 2025 season U.S. lineup integrates myth-forward possession, Indie Shockers, stacked beside returning-series thunder

Kicking off with fight-to-live nightmare stories grounded in biblical myth and onward to returning series paired with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is coalescing into the most dimensioned plus intentionally scheduled year in recent memory.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio powerhouses stabilize the year via recognizable brands, simultaneously streaming platforms prime the fall with discovery plays together with scriptural shivers. On the festival side, the artisan tier is carried on the kinetic energy from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween stays the prime week, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are intentional, accordingly 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige fear returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s pipeline sets the tone with a risk-forward move: a refreshed Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. timed for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

At summer’s close, Warner’s slate sets loose the finale of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, 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 guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma driven plotting, and a cold supernatural calculus. This run ups the stakes, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The return delves further into myth, thickens the animatronic pantheon, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It opens in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While cinemas swing on series strength, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is destined for a fall landing.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: 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

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is an astute call. No overweight mythology. No continuity burden. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festivals as Springboards

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, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives 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, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Signals and Trends

Ancient myth goes wide
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror ascends again
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Autumn density and winter pivot

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. 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. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The approaching Horror lineup: brand plays, non-franchise titles, in tandem with A jammed Calendar engineered for jolts

Dek The arriving horror season clusters from day one with a January logjam, and then rolls through the summer months, and running into the late-year period, blending series momentum, new voices, and savvy counter-scheduling. Major distributors and platforms are committing to smart costs, cinema-first plans, and short-form initiatives that shape these films into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This category has shown itself to be the dependable option in studio slates, a segment that can accelerate when it catches and still cushion the losses when it fails to connect. After 2023 re-taught top brass that lean-budget pictures can galvanize cultural conversation, the following year carried the beat with filmmaker-forward plays and under-the-radar smashes. The upswing extended into 2025, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries confirmed there is capacity for varied styles, from returning installments to non-IP projects that export nicely. The combined impact for 2026 is a grid that reads highly synchronized across companies, with mapped-out bands, a harmony of known properties and new pitches, and a recommitted eye on exhibition windows that fuel later windows on premium home window and digital services.

Executives say the space now operates like a schedule utility on the rollout map. The genre can premiere on open real estate, generate a sharp concept for promo reels and UGC-friendly snippets, and over-index with audiences that show up on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the release works. In the wake of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 rhythm underscores certainty in that playbook. The calendar begins with a crowded January window, then taps spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while holding room for a fall corridor that extends to holiday-adjacent weekends and beyond. The map also shows the stronger partnership of boutique distributors and home platforms that can platform and widen, stoke social talk, and grow at the optimal moment.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across interlocking continuities and legacy franchises. Studio teams are not just mounting another return. They are shaping as lore continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a refreshed voice or a ensemble decision that connects a fresh chapter to a vintage era. At the meanwhile, the auteurs behind great post to read the eagerly awaited originals are prioritizing practical craft, special makeup and site-specific worlds. That pairing provides 2026 a vital pairing of assurance and discovery, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount defines the early cadence with two centerpiece projects that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the spine, presenting it as both a lineage transfer and a heritage-centered relationship-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the directional approach conveys a roots-evoking mode without retreading the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Watch for a push stacked with signature symbols, character previews, and a trailer cadence timed to 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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will feature. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will chase general-audience talk through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick redirects to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three unique pushes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. have a peek at these guys The hook is tight, somber, and premise-first: a grieving man purchases an digital partner that turns into a fatal companion. The date positions it at the front of a front-loaded month, with marketing at Universal likely to renew odd public stunts and micro spots that mixes companionship and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title drop to become an marketing beat closer to the first look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s pictures are marketed as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor creates space for Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, makeup-driven strategy can feel prestige on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror charge that spotlights foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio lines up two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, continuing a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is billing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both longtime followers and new audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign pieces around canon, and creature builds, elements that can lift format premiums and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by textural authenticity and archaic language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The label has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is supportive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s genre entries shift to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a tiered path that fortifies both launch urgency and viewer acquisition in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends licensed films with global acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and curated rows to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix remains opportunistic about originals and festival buys, securing horror entries closer to drop and positioning as event drops rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of focused cinema runs and rapid platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to buy select projects with name filmmakers or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is mapping 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 setup is clear: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, elevated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a cinema-first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. 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 sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception warrants. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using small theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their membership.

Series vs standalone

By tilt, 2026 tilts in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use brand equity. The caveat, as ever, is diminishing returns. The pragmatic answer is to position each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is underscoring character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French sensibility from a buzzed-about director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller 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 familiar IP, the assembly is assuring enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

The last three-year set announce the logic. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that honored streaming windows did not stop a day-date try from winning when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds 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 lensed sequentially, allows marketing to thread films through character arcs and themes and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The craft rooms behind the year’s horror forecast a continued emphasis on practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds atmosphere and fear rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for textured sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a preview that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and drives shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta refresh that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature design and production design, which are ideal for booth activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel definitive. Look for trailers that emphasize razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that sing on PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid heftier brand moves. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the palette of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Q1 into Q2 prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder season window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a minimalist tease strategy and limited plot reveals that favor idea over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday card usage.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s digital partner mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 try to survive on a far-flung island as the power balance of power turns and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to dread, shaped by Cronin’s practical effects and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting chiller that toys with the panic of a child’s mercurial point of view. Rating: TBD. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that satirizes contemporary horror memes and true crime preoccupations. Rating: rating forthcoming. 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 surges, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. this page Rating: forthcoming. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new family caught in returning horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on classic survival-horror tone over action fireworks. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving forward. 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 historical diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the moment is 2026

Three grounded forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that downshifted or shuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured 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 dumps. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest clippable moments from test screenings, select scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. 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 sweet spot. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where lower and 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 work those windows. 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you 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 condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound, and framing 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 Is Well Positioned

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand equity where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, 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 chills sell the seats.