Primeval Evil Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror feature, launching October 2025 across global platforms

One frightening mystic suspense film from writer / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an timeless nightmare when guests become conduits in a devilish ordeal. Dropping on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing narrative of struggle and ancient evil that will revamp genre cinema this spooky time. Crafted by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and claustrophobic story follows five strangers who find themselves caught in a secluded dwelling under the menacing dominion of Kyra, a haunted figure consumed by a time-worn biblical force. Be warned to be ensnared by a audio-visual experience that blends primitive horror with folklore, coming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a well-established concept in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is radically shifted when the beings no longer originate externally, but rather inside their minds. This suggests the deepest dimension of the players. The result is a psychologically brutal mind game where the drama becomes a ongoing clash between purity and corruption.


In a barren woodland, five teens find themselves trapped under the ominous aura and control of a elusive character. As the protagonists becomes powerless to evade her influence, stranded and tracked by unknowns ungraspable, they are thrust to confront their darkest emotions while the clock unforgivingly winds toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia builds and partnerships break, coercing each figure to reflect on their essence and the concept of independent thought itself. The cost mount with every second, delivering a scare-fueled ride that harmonizes otherworldly panic with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to uncover deep fear, an entity rooted in antiquity, embedding itself in inner turmoil, and wrestling with a presence that erodes the self when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra needed manifesting something more primal than sorrow. She is unseeing until the demon emerges, and that metamorphosis is soul-crushing because it is so personal.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for digital release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure fans everywhere can watch this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first preview, which has been viewed over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, taking the terror to horror fans worldwide.


Don’t miss this bone-rattling voyage through terror. Confront *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to confront these haunting secrets about the human condition.


For film updates, extra content, and insider scoops from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across platforms and visit the movie portal.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: 2025 across markets U.S. release slate fuses biblical-possession ideas, underground frights, plus IP aftershocks

Spanning grit-forward survival fare steeped in ancient scripture all the way to brand-name continuations in concert with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 appears poised to be the most stratified plus carefully orchestrated year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. the big studios hold down the year by way of signature titles, while platform operators prime the fall with discovery plays in concert with legend-coded dread. On the independent axis, the independent cohort is propelled by the afterglow of 2024’s record festival wave. Since Halloween is the prized date, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, but this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are precise, thus 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: The Return of Prestige Fear

The majors are assertive. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal banner lights the fuse with an audacious swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a modern-day environment. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. timed for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

By late summer, Warner’s pipeline releases the last chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The next entry deepens the tale, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It opens in December, locking down the winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a sealed box body horror arc featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. 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 threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of 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 overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. 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. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, with Francis Lawrence directing, 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.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Dials to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

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

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Big screen is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

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

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new spook season: returning titles, universe starters, as well as A loaded Calendar optimized for frights

Dek The incoming horror calendar crams up front with a January pile-up, thereafter spreads through peak season, and straight through the holiday frame, combining name recognition, fresh ideas, and tactical offsets. Major distributors and platforms are relying on tight budgets, theater-first strategies, and buzz-forward plans that position the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror sector has emerged as the bankable counterweight in release strategies, a segment that can spike when it performs and still mitigate the liability when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year re-taught leaders that lean-budget pictures can galvanize social chatter, the following year carried the beat with signature-voice projects and unexpected risers. The carry rolled into the 2025 frame, where reboots and awards-minded projects proved there is room for many shades, from ongoing IP entries to director-led originals that translate worldwide. The sum for the 2026 slate is a schedule that appears tightly organized across the market, with obvious clusters, a equilibrium of familiar brands and untested plays, and a tightened attention on theatrical windows that increase tail monetization on premium rental and home platforms.

Buyers contend the space now behaves like a flex slot on the schedule. The genre can bow on almost any weekend, generate a sharp concept for marketing and platform-native cuts, and outperform with viewers that line up on early shows and hold through the second weekend if the entry fires. Post a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 configuration signals certainty in that model. The calendar opens with a weighty January corridor, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a autumn push that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and past Halloween. The calendar also reflects the greater integration of indie distributors and streaming partners that can build gradually, stoke social talk, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

A parallel macro theme is brand curation across interlocking continuities and veteran brands. Distribution groups are not just rolling another entry. They are seeking to position brand continuity with a occasion, whether that is a brandmark that telegraphs a new tone or a casting choice that connects a fresh chapter to a foundational era. At the parallel to that, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are prioritizing practical craft, special makeup and specific settings. That interplay affords 2026 a smart balance of home base and discovery, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two prominent pushes that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the spine, framing it as both a baton pass and a return-to-roots character-first story. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the authorial approach telegraphs a memory-charged bent without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign leaning on iconic art, character spotlights, and a promo sequence timed to late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will feature. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will build mainstream recognition through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format making room for quick shifts to whatever rules the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three defined releases. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is crisp, heartbroken, and commercial: a grieving man brings home an AI companion that becomes a deadly partner. The date nudges it to the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to bring back uncanny live moments and short-cut promos that blurs companionship and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a name unveil to become an fan moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s pictures are treated as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that holds back and a subsequent trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot affords Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has long shown that a in-your-face, on-set effects led treatment can feel top-tier on a moderate cost. Look for a blood-and-grime summer horror shock that spotlights global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio rolls out two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both core fans and new audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around environmental design, and monster craft, elements that can fuel deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants 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 centered on obsessive craft and historical speech, this time set against lycan legends. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is strong.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Windowing plans in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ordering that fortifies both launch urgency and platform bumps in the downstream. Prime Video will mix acquired titles with cross-border buys and small theatrical windows when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in archive usage, using well-timed internal promotions, fright rows, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps optionality about in-house releases and festival grabs, dating horror entries tight to release and turning into events premieres with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a tiered of selective theatrical runs and short jumps to platform that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown appetite to invest in select projects with acclaimed directors or star-driven packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 slate with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is clean: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, updated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas corridor to move out. That positioning has served the company well for auteur horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception prompts. Expect 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 in tandem, using precision theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their community.

IP versus fresh ideas

By skew, 2026 favors the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit name recognition. The potential drawback, as ever, is audience fatigue. The preferred tactic is to position each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is elevating relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a Francophone tone see here from a fresh helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the deal build is anchored enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and early previews.

Three-year comps contextualize the template. In 2023, a theater-first model that preserved streaming windows did not deter a same-day experiment from performing when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror over-performed in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel new when they pivot perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on 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 filmed in sequence, allows marketing to bridge entries through character web and themes and to keep assets alive without extended gaps.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind the 2026 entries foreshadow a continued preference for tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that emphasizes creep and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft profiles and department features before rolling out a first look that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and drives shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta refresh that centers its original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster realization and design, which are ideal for fan conventions and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that spotlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

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 quiet contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tone spread makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Early-year through spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on navigate to this website July 24 supplies brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Shoulder season into fall leans brand. 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 slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited previews that put concept first.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s synthetic partner shifts into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 demanding boss struggle to survive on a desolate island as the power balance of power upends and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to fright, grounded in Cronin’s in-camera craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting piece that teases the dread of a child’s unreliable read. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, this website Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A parody return that lampoons today’s horror trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further reopens, with a fresh family tethered to old terrors. Rating: pending. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A new start designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward true survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: pending. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: closely held. Rating: forthcoming. Production: proceeding. 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 era-faithful speech and elemental menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three grounded forces shape this lineup. First, production that stalled or rearranged in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming placements. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest bite-size scare clips from test screenings, managed scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

The slot calculus is real. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will line up across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 midrange-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 use those gaps. 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, 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 stack through the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, efficient placements, 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 detail, sound, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand gravity where needed, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, guard the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.