Antediluvian Evil emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling feature, launching October 2025 on premium platforms

A terrifying occult nightmare movie from dramatist / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primordial curse when unrelated individuals become tools in a dark ceremony. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a intense episode of endurance and primeval wickedness that will revamp the horror genre this scare season. Helmed by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and moody motion picture follows five people who snap to confined in a secluded shack under the oppressive grip of Kyra, a cursed figure occupied by a ancient scriptural evil. Be prepared to be absorbed by a big screen spectacle that fuses primitive horror with timeless legends, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a well-established fixture in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is reversed when the presences no longer develop outside their bodies, but rather through their own souls. This suggests the grimmest corner of the protagonists. The result is a harrowing inner struggle where the events becomes a brutal fight between good and evil.


In a remote no-man's-land, five individuals find themselves isolated under the possessive effect and haunting of a obscure figure. As the protagonists becomes vulnerable to reject her power, exiled and tormented by powers unimaginable, they are pushed to face their core terrors while the countdown ruthlessly runs out toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion deepens and alliances implode, driving each cast member to contemplate their being and the idea of personal agency itself. The tension grow with every heartbeat, delivering a frightening tale that integrates otherworldly panic with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to uncover core terror, an power before modern man, manipulating soul-level flaws, and highlighting a presence that forces self-examination when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra called for internalizing something unfamiliar to reason. She is unaware until the takeover begins, and that transition is emotionally raw because it is so raw.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for worldwide release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that subscribers globally can watch this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first trailer, which has received over a viral response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, taking the terror to global fright lovers.


Avoid skipping this heart-stopping fall into madness. Join *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to see these terrifying truths about human nature.


For film updates, production news, and alerts directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit the film’s website.





Today’s horror Turning Point: calendar year 2025 U.S. rollouts integrates old-world possession, indie terrors, stacked beside returning-series thunder

From endurance-driven terror rooted in biblical myth and onward to brand-name continuations plus sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is lining up as the most complex as well as calculated campaign year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. the big studios hold down the year with franchise anchors, in parallel subscription platforms flood the fall with unboxed visions paired with scriptural shivers. On the festival side, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is riding the backdraft of 2024’s record festival wave. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are exacting, accordingly 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium genre swings back

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal banner lights the fuse with a risk-forward move: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. timed for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Steered by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. releases the last chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Despite a known recipe, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, along with eerie supernatural rules. This run ups the stakes, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The new chapter enriches the lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, courting teens and the thirty something base. It opens in December, pinning the winter close.

Digital Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a body horror duet led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Then there is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived and directed 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.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a calculated bet. No heavy handed lore. No sequel clutter. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

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 hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, from Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Signals and Trends

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

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

SVOD originals harden up
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The next spook release year: follow-ups, standalone ideas, alongside A brimming Calendar tailored for frights

Dek: The new terror calendar crams from the jump with a January glut, following that extends through the warm months, and well into the year-end corridor, balancing brand equity, new voices, and savvy alternatives. Major distributors and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that convert these pictures into national conversation.

How the genre looks for 2026

This space has emerged as the steady lever in release plans, a corner that can lift when it clicks and still cushion the drag when it does not. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for leaders that lean-budget fright engines can command social chatter, 2024 held pace with festival-darling auteurs and unexpected risers. The energy flowed into 2025, where revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets demonstrated there is room for a variety of tones, from franchise continuations to fresh IP that play globally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a calendar that feels more orchestrated than usual across the major shops, with defined corridors, a combination of established brands and new pitches, and a recommitted eye on release windows that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and home platforms.

Marketers add the category now works like a utility player on the rollout map. Horror can open on almost any weekend, deliver a grabby hook for ad units and UGC-friendly snippets, and outperform with crowds that come out on advance nights and sustain through the week two if the entry fires. Exiting a work stoppage lag, the 2026 plan underscores certainty in that logic. The slate commences with a thick January stretch, then plants flags in spring and early summer for balance, while saving space for a fall cadence that carries into late October and afterwards. The schedule also illustrates the increasing integration of arthouse labels and streaming partners that can develop over weeks, generate chatter, and go nationwide at the optimal moment.

An added macro current is legacy care across connected story worlds and established properties. The studios are not just rolling another installment. They are shaping as ongoing narrative with a specialness, whether that is a brandmark that telegraphs a fresh attitude or a talent selection that ties a next entry to a early run. At the parallel to that, the creative teams behind the top original plays are doubling down on practical craft, in-camera effects and concrete locations. That convergence offers the 2026 slate a confident blend of assurance and unexpected turns, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount establishes early momentum with two centerpiece projects that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, angling it as both a legacy handover and a DNA-forward character-focused installment. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture conveys a fan-service aware strategy without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive stacked with brand visuals, early character teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm timed to late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off 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 partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will lean on. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will go after broad awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format fitting quick reframes to whatever leads the discourse that spring.

Universal has three distinct pushes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is crisp, somber, and high-concept: a grieving man brings home an intelligent companion that turns into a harmful mate. The date slots it at the front of a thick month, with the marketing arm likely to bring back viral uncanny stunts and short-cut promos that mixes devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a title reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s releases are treated as signature events, with a opaque teaser and a second trailer wave that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date gives the studio room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, on-set effects led mix can feel big on a efficient spend. Expect a gore-forward summer horror blast that maximizes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, keeping a reliable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan click site locks it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is positioning as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both loyalists and fresh viewers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build promo materials around universe detail, and monster craft, elements that can lift deluxe auditorium demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by immersive craft and linguistic texture, this time focused on werewolf legend. The specialty arm has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Digital strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s horror titles shift to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a ordering that amplifies both opening-weekend urgency and subscriber lifts in the post-theatrical. Prime Video stitches together licensed content with cross-border buys and short theatrical plays when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in catalog discovery, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and featured rows to keep attention on overall cume. Netflix keeps options open about originals and festival additions, securing horror entries closer to launch and turning into events premieres with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a hybrid of precision releases and fast windowing that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a per-project basis. The platform has proven amenable to board select projects with acclaimed directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for platform stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 lane with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is tight: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, this website refined for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the December frame to expand. That positioning has served the company well for craft-driven horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception justifies. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using mini theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Known brands versus new stories

By weight, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness household recognition. The question, as ever, is viewer burnout. The practical approach is to pitch each entry as a new angle. Paramount is bringing forward character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French sensibility from a hot helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and talent-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the package is grounded enough to spark pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Recent comps outline the approach. In 2023, a cinema-first model that honored streaming windows did not block a day-date move from winning when the brand was sticky. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in premium formats. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they alter lens and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, enables marketing to thread films through character web and themes and to keep assets alive without doldrums.

Technique and craft currents

The filmmaking conversations behind the year’s horror hint at a continued lean toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that spotlights texture and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in deep-dive features and guild coverage before rolling out a tone piece that leans on mood over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster work and world-building, which favor convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that elevate pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that benefit on big speakers.

The schedule at a glance

January is heavy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid bigger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tone spread ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Early-year through spring build the summer base. Scream 7 comes February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a late-September window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited information drops that center concept over reveals.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can play the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s synthetic partner turns into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. 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 difficult boss scramble to survive on a cut-off island as the power balance reverses and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. 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 not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to chill, based on Cronin’s physical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting premise that interrogates the fear of a child’s unreliable read. Rating: to be announced. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and toplined haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that satirizes modern genre fads and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBA. 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 flares, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a different family entangled with older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBD. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving forward. 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 period-specific language and primal menace. Rating: forthcoming. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three practical forces structure this lineup. First, production that downshifted or shuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, precision scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will jostle across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise 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 abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the this content board, 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 momentum and variety. January is a banquet, 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 goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sonics, 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is franchise muscle where it helps, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.