Ancient Horror stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling thriller, premiering October 2025 across global platforms

A blood-curdling unearthly fright fest from storyteller / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primeval nightmare when strangers become proxies in a dark ordeal. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing tale of struggle and forgotten curse that will reconstruct the fear genre this October. Created by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and claustrophobic film follows five unacquainted souls who wake up stuck in a hidden dwelling under the oppressive control of Kyra, a troubled woman overtaken by a millennia-old sacred-era entity. Get ready to be seized by a cinematic outing that blends bodily fright with ancestral stories, coming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a well-established element in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is reimagined when the malevolences no longer form outside their bodies, but rather from within. This portrays the most sinister part of these individuals. The result is a relentless identity crisis where the plotline becomes a brutal face-off between innocence and sin.


In a bleak landscape, five souls find themselves sealed under the sinister rule and possession of a secretive character. As the group becomes unable to break her influence, marooned and stalked by unknowns mind-shattering, they are compelled to confront their greatest panics while the clock unforgivingly draws closer toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension swells and associations crack, urging each protagonist to reflect on their essence and the integrity of self-determination itself. The risk mount with every minute, delivering a terror ride that blends ghostly evil with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dive into pure dread, an presence born of forgotten ages, operating within our fears, and questioning a will that threatens selfhood when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra required summoning something beneath mortal despair. She is uninformed until the control shifts, and that change is eerie because it is so intimate.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—ensuring horror lovers everywhere can experience this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first preview, which has seen over six-figure audience.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, taking the terror to fans of fear everywhere.


Don’t miss this visceral exploration of dread. Experience *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to see these haunting secrets about the human condition.


For film updates, production insights, and promotions from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursed across media channels and visit youngandcursed.com.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: calendar year 2025 U.S. lineup Mixes biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, and IP aftershocks

Running from last-stand terror drawn from legendary theology to brand-name continuations as well as cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is emerging as the most variegated together with tactically planned year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. leading studios plant stakes across the year via recognizable brands, in parallel SVOD players flood the fall with new perspectives alongside archetypal fear. Across the art-house lane, indie storytellers is surfing the carry from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Since Halloween is the prized date, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are precise, and 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium dread reemerges

The top end is active. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s slate leads off the quarter with a confident swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. dated for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer eases, the Warner Bros. banner launches the swan song from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Despite a known recipe, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the memorable motifs return: 70s style chill, trauma explicitly handled, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, builds out the animatronic fear crew, bridging teens and legacy players. It lands in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Firsts: Low budgets, big teeth

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a sealed box body horror arc starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, 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 threat is psychological first, wired with 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. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No bloated canon. No series drag. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Heritage Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Projection: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

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 have to fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The forthcoming 2026 scare year to come: brand plays, original films, together with A brimming Calendar aimed at frights

Dek The brand-new scare cycle lines up at the outset with a January crush, before it unfolds through summer, and well into the holiday stretch, balancing franchise firepower, fresh ideas, and tactical counterplay. The big buyers and platforms are focusing on responsible budgets, theatrical leads, and viral-minded pushes that convert these offerings into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The genre has emerged as the consistent option in studio calendars, a category that can expand when it clicks and still limit the drawdown when it stumbles. After the 2023 year reassured executives that cost-conscious genre plays can shape the zeitgeist, 2024 continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and unexpected risers. The upswing translated to 2025, where reboots and prestige plays showed there is room for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to original one-offs that carry overseas. The net effect for 2026 is a calendar that reads highly synchronized across companies, with obvious clusters, a equilibrium of known properties and first-time concepts, and a revived eye on theatrical windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium digital rental and digital services.

Buyers contend the horror lane now performs as a schedule utility on the schedule. The genre can arrive on many corridors, yield a sharp concept for promo reels and TikTok spots, and overperform with audiences that lean in on advance nights and return through the week two if the picture lands. Following a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 pattern exhibits faith in that dynamic. The calendar starts with a thick January band, then taps spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while making space for a late-year stretch that carries into Halloween and into post-Halloween. The calendar also includes the increasing integration of specialty distributors and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, ignite recommendations, and grow at the right moment.

A further high-level trend is brand strategy across connected story worlds and heritage properties. Studios are not just releasing another next film. They are moving to present brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a logo package that telegraphs a tonal shift or a casting choice that binds a incoming chapter to a early run. At the parallel to that, the visionaries behind the most anticipated originals are returning to real-world builds, on-set effects and distinct locales. That blend hands the 2026 slate a robust balance of brand comfort and newness, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount leads early with two front-of-slate plays that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the heart, positioning the film as both a relay and a foundation-forward character study. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the story approach signals a roots-evoking approach without replaying the last two entries’ family thread. Expect a marketing push stacked with brand visuals, character-first teases, and a rollout cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is big-screen via 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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a summer counter-slot, this one will generate broad awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format fitting quick redirects to whatever dominates the discourse that spring.

Universal has three unique strategies. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is elegant, heartbroken, and high-concept: a grieving man sets up an synthetic partner that turns into a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a stacked January, with marketing at Universal likely to mirror strange in-person beats and quick hits that hybridizes longing and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a official title to become an attention spike closer to the first trailer. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s releases are treated as event films, with a concept-forward tease and a later trailer push that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The Halloween runway affords Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, makeup-driven aesthetic can feel deluxe on a tight budget. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror shot that emphasizes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio rolls out two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, extending a consistent supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is billing as a fresh 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 explicit mandate to serve both core fans and casuals. The fall slot affords Sony time to build marketing units around environmental design, and creature builds, elements that can drive deluxe auditorium demand 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 continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in rigorous craft and linguistic texture, this time orbiting lycan myth. The company has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is favorable.

Digital platform strategies

Platform tactics for 2026 run on established tracks. The Universal horror run feed copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a tiered path that expands both initial urgency and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video balances third-party pickups with world buys and brief theater runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in back-catalog play, using in-app campaigns, October hubs, and curated rows to prolong the run on the 2026 genre total. Netflix stays opportunistic about first-party entries and festival wins, timing horror entries on shorter runways and framing as events rollouts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a dual-phase of targeted cinema placements and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a discrete basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to invest in select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation surges.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 sequence 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 clean: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, reimagined for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the October weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, managing the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then using the holiday dates to increase reach. That positioning has been successful for arthouse horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception merits. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using select theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchises versus originals

By weight, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is staleness. The pragmatic answer is to position each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is leading with character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French sensibility from a rising filmmaker. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be horror pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the packaging is comforting enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps clarify the plan. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not preclude a parallel release from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror rose in premium formats. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they change perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues 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 shot consecutively, builds a path for marketing to cross-link entries through personae and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without long gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The production chatter behind this slate foreshadow a continued turn toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that elevates atmosphere and fear rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in long-lead press and technical spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that keeps plot minimal, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and sparks shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta refresh that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster work and world-building, which align with convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel primary. Look for trailers that highlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is crowded. Universal’s 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 heavier IP. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the palette of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Q1 into Q2 set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited plot reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can win the holiday when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Project briefs

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

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

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

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 meet a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: atmospheric game 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 claw to survive on a uninhabited island as the control dynamic swivels and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to terror, founded on Cronin’s in-camera craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting chiller that threads the dread through a little one’s unreliable point of view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: major-studio and toplined eerie 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 parody return that teases in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime obsessions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 detonates, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new clan snared by lingering terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: set for summer production targeting weblink late-summer opening. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-core horror over action spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBD. Production: proceeding. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 bone-deep menace. Rating: TBA. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three execution-level forces drive this lineup. First, production that eased or re-slotted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on clippable moments from test screenings, select scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will cluster 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 leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, 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 underdog chase 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two 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 chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, soundcraft, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is IP strength where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.