Mythic Evil emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding feature, bowing Oct 2025 on major platforms

This eerie spiritual nightmare movie from creator / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an archaic force when unknowns become victims in a hellish ritual. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful story of staying alive and archaic horror that will reconstruct the horror genre this scare season. Produced by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and claustrophobic suspense flick follows five lost souls who emerge trapped in a isolated house under the hostile grip of Kyra, a central character controlled by a two-thousand-year-old scriptural evil. Prepare to be seized by a audio-visual display that integrates bone-deep fear with arcane tradition, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a enduring concept in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is twisted when the beings no longer emerge from external sources, but rather internally. This represents the deepest part of each of them. The result is a enthralling internal warfare where the drama becomes a merciless push-pull between moral forces.


In a remote no-man's-land, five campers find themselves sealed under the sinister presence and possession of a obscure figure. As the companions becomes vulnerable to fight her dominion, stranded and attacked by evils indescribable, they are obligated to deal with their core terrors while the countdown without pause draws closer toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust amplifies and connections dissolve, requiring each cast member to examine their self and the idea of self-determination itself. The danger magnify with every breath, delivering a nightmarish journey that blends supernatural terror with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to dig into primitive panic, an entity beyond recorded history, operating within fragile psyche, and confronting a will that peels away humanity when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra was centered on something more primal than sorrow. She is oblivious until the possession kicks in, and that transition is bone-chilling because it is so emotional.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for public screening beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—delivering streamers internationally can watch this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its original promo, which has garnered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, spreading the horror to international horror buffs.


Don’t miss this heart-stopping path of possession. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to uncover these dark realities about our species.


For director insights, special features, and updates from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across fan hubs and visit youngandcursed.com.





Current horror’s tipping point: calendar year 2025 U.S. rollouts Mixes ancient-possession motifs, underground frights, alongside Franchise Rumbles

Kicking off with pressure-cooker survival tales grounded in mythic scripture through to franchise returns together with surgical indie voices, 2025 stands to become the richest together with precision-timed year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. leading studios bookend the months with familiar IP, concurrently SVOD players flood the fall with emerging auteurs in concert with old-world menace. Across the art-house lane, the artisan tier is surfing the carry of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: The Return of Prestige Fear

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a statement play: a contemporary Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. arriving mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Guided by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer eases, the WB camp rolls out the capstone from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Granted the structure is classic, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson is back, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: 70s style chill, trauma as theme, and eerie supernatural logic. Here the stakes rise, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, bridging teens and legacy players. It opens in December, cornering year end horror.

Digital Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a sealed box body horror arc led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

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.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of 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 horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, under Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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

Trend Lines

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror resurges
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Forward View: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. 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 brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The coming 2026 fear calendar year ahead: follow-ups, original films, and also A loaded Calendar geared toward screams

Dek The upcoming scare slate packs immediately with a January traffic jam, and then flows through the summer months, and running into the holiday frame, marrying marquee clout, creative pitches, and data-minded counter-scheduling. Studio marketers and platforms are prioritizing cost discipline, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that frame these releases into cross-demo moments.

Horror momentum into 2026

This category has grown into the dependable swing in release strategies, a space that can break out when it resonates and still safeguard the exposure when it does not. After the 2023 year proved to leaders that low-to-mid budget pictures can own social chatter, 2024 carried the beat with auteur-driven buzzy films and unexpected risers. The run flowed into 2025, where revived properties and arthouse crossovers signaled there is space for several lanes, from franchise continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The net effect for 2026 is a lineup that presents tight coordination across the field, with defined corridors, a blend of legacy names and untested plays, and a sharpened attention on exhibition windows that drive downstream revenue on premium video on demand and platforms.

Studio leaders note the space now slots in as a versatile piece on the slate. Horror can kick off on a wide range of weekends, supply a tight logline for promo reels and vertical videos, and exceed norms with audiences that appear on opening previews and hold through the subsequent weekend if the picture fires. On the heels of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 plan signals belief in that dynamic. The year launches with a loaded January block, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while reserving space for a October build that extends to the Halloween corridor and beyond. The calendar also illustrates the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and streaming partners that can grow from platform, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

A parallel macro theme is brand curation across linked properties and heritage properties. Studios are not just mounting another continuation. They are seeking to position continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a new tone or a talent selection that bridges a new entry to a initial period. At the very same time, the writer-directors behind the top original plays are returning to physical effects work, practical effects and vivid settings. That combination delivers 2026 a confident blend of assurance and invention, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two marquee pushes that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the spine, signaling it as both a baton pass and a foundation-forward character-focused installment. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach indicates a throwback-friendly angle without going over the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Count on a promo wave fueled by brand visuals, character previews, and a tiered teaser plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will spotlight. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format inviting quick shifts to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three discrete entries. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tight, grief-rooted, and big-hook: a grieving man purchases an intelligent companion that mutates into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s team likely to reprise viral uncanny stunts and short-cut promos that hybridizes love and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a official title to become an attention spike closer to the first trailer. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s pictures are branded as director events, with a minimalist tease and a second beat that shape mood without giving away the concept. The late-month date gives Universal room to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, hands-on effects execution can feel top-tier on a moderate cost. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror charge that centers global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio mounts two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, maintaining a reliable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is describing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both franchise faithful and general audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build assets around lore, and monster design, elements that can drive PLF interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places 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 rooted in historical precision and dialect, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus’s team has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is supportive.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform tactics for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal titles flow to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that optimizes both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix third-party pickups with global acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library pulls, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and collection rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps options open about internal projects and festival deals, locking in horror entries toward the drop and making event-like go-lives with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a tiered of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to invest in select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is direct: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, refined 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. The distributor has positioned a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday corridor to scale. That positioning has served the company well for director-led genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception allows. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using select theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their membership.

Series vs standalone

By proportion, 2026 tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The risk, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to frame each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is foregrounding character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add oxygen. 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, centers Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is familiar enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday previews.

Three-year comps illuminate the approach. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not stop a day-and-date experiment from paying off when the brand was trusted. In 2024, precision craft horror outperformed in PLF. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, permits marketing to interlace chapters through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets in-market without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The director conversations behind these films foreshadow a continued lean toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that underscores texture and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft profiles and artisan spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and sparks shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta reframe that centers an original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which are ideal for booth activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel irresistible. Look for trailers that spotlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that explode in larger rooms.

How the year maps out

January is crowded. 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 moody palate cleanser amid headline IP. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the spread of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

February through May tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through 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 connected. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a peekaboo tease plan and limited asset reveals that elevate concept over story.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s intelligent companion unfolds into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss fight to survive on a desolate island as the pecking order flips and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to dread, founded on Cronin’s physical craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting piece that filters its scares through a little one’s flickering perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and toplined spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A comic send-up that skewers hot-button genre motifs and true-crime crazes. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 ignites, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further widens again, with a another family linked to long-buried horrors. Rating: pending. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in progress. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 ancient menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces frame this lineup. First, production that eased or reshuffled in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage social-ready stingers from test screenings, curated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator 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, creating valuable space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer 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 movies abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, 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 tempo and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor 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 qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, 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.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is name recognition where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.