Primordial Dread returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across global platforms

A chilling otherworldly suspense story from author / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an mythic terror when unfamiliar people become pawns in a fiendish ceremony. Streaming this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing account of endurance and timeless dread that will reconstruct the fear genre this fall. Brought to life by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and moody thriller follows five characters who are stirred ensnared in a remote shelter under the aggressive influence of Kyra, a possessed female inhabited by a 2,000-year-old scriptural evil. Anticipate to be captivated by a immersive event that fuses primitive horror with timeless legends, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a well-established trope in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is reversed when the beings no longer emerge outside their bodies, but rather from their core. This illustrates the most terrifying version of the group. The result is a psychologically brutal mind game where the emotions becomes a unyielding face-off between divinity and wickedness.


In a haunting wilderness, five teens find themselves sealed under the malicious influence and curse of a mysterious entity. As the protagonists becomes unresisting to oppose her curse, abandoned and followed by evils unnamable, they are cornered to confront their deepest fears while the hours mercilessly ticks onward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion amplifies and relationships erode, requiring each individual to rethink their true nature and the structure of personal agency itself. The intensity rise with every fleeting time, delivering a scare-fueled ride that marries spiritual fright with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to awaken basic terror, an malevolence that existed before mankind, operating within human fragility, and testing a entity that challenges autonomy when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra called for internalizing something past sanity. She is blind until the takeover begins, and that conversion is terrifying because it is so personal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for audience access beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that subscribers from coast to coast can engage with this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original clip, which has collected over 100,000 views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, delivering the story to a worldwide audience.


Witness this life-altering descent into darkness. Stream *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to survive these terrifying truths about the psyche.


For bonus footage, on-set glimpses, and alerts from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit our spooky domain.





Horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 cycle U.S. Slate blends Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, plus Franchise Rumbles

Kicking off with last-stand terror inspired by near-Eastern lore and onward to brand-name continuations set beside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is emerging as horror’s most layered together with tactically planned year in the past ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. studio majors hold down the year with known properties, in parallel streamers front-load the fall with debut heat alongside old-world menace. Meanwhile, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is drafting behind the tailwinds from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and now, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are methodical, as a result 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige fear returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal banner lights the fuse with a confident swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a modern-day environment. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. targeting mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Guided by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

When summer tapers, Warner Bros. Pictures bows the concluding entry of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and those signature textures resurface: period tinged dread, trauma as text, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It posts in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

SVOD Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable starring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. 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.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No bloated mythology. No IP hangover. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, from Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror resurges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Near Term Outlook: Fall pileup, winter curveball

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, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The next spook lineup: follow-ups, filmmaker-first projects, in tandem with A brimming Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek: The upcoming terror cycle packs up front with a January logjam, following that flows through peak season, and straight through the year-end corridor, blending franchise firepower, new concepts, and data-minded counterplay. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on responsible budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and buzz-forward plans that convert the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has emerged as the consistent play in programming grids, a pillar that can expand when it catches and still safeguard the downside when it underperforms. After 2023 re-taught greenlighters that mid-range shockers can drive the zeitgeist, the following year extended the rally with auteur-driven buzzy films and quiet over-performers. The carry rolled into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is room for a variety of tones, from brand follow-ups to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a grid that seems notably aligned across distributors, with intentional bunching, a spread of known properties and untested plays, and a sharpened focus on box-office windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on paid VOD and OTT platforms.

Planners observe the category now performs as a schedule utility on the distribution slate. The genre can debut on numerous frames, deliver a easy sell for previews and short-form placements, and punch above weight with patrons that appear on opening previews and continue through the subsequent weekend if the feature lands. Emerging from a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 rhythm telegraphs confidence in that engine. The slate gets underway with a loaded January lineup, then exploits spring through early summer for audience offsets, while keeping space for a fall cadence that runs into the Halloween frame and into the next week. The calendar also illustrates the tightening integration of arthouse labels and streamers that can platform a title, ignite recommendations, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is series management across unified worlds and veteran brands. Major shops are not just rolling another continuation. They are looking to package threaded continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a title treatment that signals a new vibe or a casting choice that connects a next entry to a first wave. At the meanwhile, the directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to tactile craft, practical effects and place-driven backdrops. That interplay affords 2026 a solid mix of comfort and invention, which is what works overseas.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount marks the early tempo with two spotlight releases that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the heart, positioning the film as both a cross-generational handoff and a return-to-roots character-first story. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative stance conveys a memory-charged campaign without repeating the last two entries’ sibling arc. Plan for a rollout built on signature symbols, intro reveals, and a trailer cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will emphasize. As a summer contrast play, this one will hunt general-audience talk through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format fitting quick pivots to whatever defines the discourse that spring.

Universal has three discrete plays. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is clean, soulful, and high-concept: a grieving man adopts an intelligent companion that turns into a murderous partner. The date places it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the Universal machine likely to renew strange in-person beats and short-form creative that mixes longing and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a proper title to become an PR pop closer to the first look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles get redirected here occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. The filmmaker’s films are presented as event films, with a hinting teaser and a second wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-October frame lets the studio to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has demonstrated that a tactile, in-camera leaning method can feel high-value on a efficient spend. Position this as a gore-forward summer horror surge that maximizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio places two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is describing as a clean-slate approach 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 well-defined brief to serve both devotees and general audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build promo materials around mythos, and creature builds, elements that can amplify IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by rigorous craft and historical speech, this time exploring werewolf lore. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is warm.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre entries window into copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a cadence that enhances both first-week urgency and sign-up spikes in the later window. Prime Video continues to mix acquired titles with global pickups and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library engagement, using curated hubs, genre hubs, and staff picks to sustain interest on 2026 genre cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about in-house releases and festival additions, confirming horror entries toward the drop and positioning as event drops drops with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a one-two of tailored theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that translates talk to trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown a willingness to secure select projects with name filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 lane with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is simple: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, retooled for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the October weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas window to widen. That positioning has been successful for craft-driven horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception allows. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using boutique theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchises versus originals

By share, 2026 is weighted toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The risk, as ever, is diminishing returns. The near-term solution is to package each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is emphasizing character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-accented approach from a hot helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the team and cast is grounded enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps make sense of the logic. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept streaming intact did not deter a parallel release from working when the brand was compelling. In 2024, precision craft horror over-performed in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reorient and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, creates space for marketing to interlace chapters through character web and themes and to keep assets in-market without long breaks.

Technique and craft currents

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the upcoming entries forecast a continued preference for material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that centers mood and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for textured sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in deep-dive features and guild coverage before rolling out a atmospheric tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and drives shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta recalibration that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature design and production design, which work nicely for fan conventions and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel essential. Look for trailers that accent precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is stacked. 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 foggy reset amid headline IP. The month winds down 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 credible, but the mix of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth sticks.

February through May prime the summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a minimalist tease strategy and limited pre-release reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s artificial companion unfolds into something fatal and romantic. 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: mood-led 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 unyielding boss fight to survive on a rugged island as the power balance of power reverses and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller 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 practical craft and rising 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 household haunting piece that threads the dread through a little one’s shifting inner lens. Rating: not yet rated. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Get More Info Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A spoof revival that targets today’s horror trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 breaks out, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new family linked to past horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-first horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: not yet rated. Production: underway. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 language and ancient menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the moment is 2026

Three pragmatic forces inform this lineup. First, production that decelerated or migrated in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly 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 releases. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate shareable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 low-to-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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still Source 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 board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, optimized footprints, 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 texture, audio design, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is name recognition where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, protect the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.