Primordial Horror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, landing Oct 2025 across major platforms

An terrifying spectral thriller from creator / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an forgotten malevolence when guests become vehicles in a dark ceremony. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful narrative of resilience and primordial malevolence that will revamp terror storytelling this autumn. Crafted by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and shadowy film follows five young adults who come to isolated in a remote dwelling under the malignant influence of Kyra, a cursed figure possessed by a 2,000-year-old ancient fiend. Ready yourself to be seized by a filmic adventure that weaves together intense horror with ancient myths, streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a mainstay foundation in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is challenged when the presences no longer form from beyond, but rather within themselves. This symbolizes the malevolent dimension of these individuals. The result is a riveting identity crisis where the intensity becomes a unforgiving contest between purity and corruption.


In a desolate forest, five young people find themselves stuck under the possessive aura and spiritual invasion of a uncanny woman. As the companions becomes unable to withstand her control, severed and followed by beings inconceivable, they are obligated to battle their darkest emotions while the clock ruthlessly winds toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion grows and associations shatter, pushing each member to question their true nature and the idea of liberty itself. The risk amplify with every instant, delivering a cinematic nightmare that weaves together supernatural terror with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to tap into pure dread, an evil beyond recorded history, embedding itself in psychological breaks, and testing a force that forces self-examination when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra needed manifesting something outside normal anguish. She is oblivious until the curse activates, and that change is eerie because it is so close.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering subscribers around the globe can experience this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its release of trailer #1, which has received over six-figure audience.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, spreading the horror to international horror buffs.


Witness this bone-rattling fall into madness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to see these nightmarish insights about mankind.


For bonus footage, behind-the-scenes content, and insider scoops from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursed across media channels and visit our spooky domain.





Horror’s watershed moment: the 2025 season U.S. release slate weaves biblical-possession ideas, Indie Shockers, paired with brand-name tremors

Beginning with survival horror suffused with legendary theology all the way to IP renewals in concert with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 stands to become the most complex paired with intentionally scheduled year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Major studios lock in tentpoles using marquee IP, simultaneously SVOD players saturate the fall with emerging auteurs paired with mythic dread. On another front, horror’s indie wing is surfing the uplift from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, though in this cycle, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are methodical, accordingly 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium dread reemerges

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 set the base, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal banner leads off the quarter with a headline swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a sharp contemporary setting. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. landing in mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Led by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. Pictures bows the concluding entry from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re teams, and the tone that worked before is intact: nostalgic menace, trauma as narrative engine, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This run ups the stakes, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The return delves further into myth, thickens the animatronic pantheon, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It lands in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a room scale body horror descent fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No swollen lore. No IP hangover. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. 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. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Brands: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, guided by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Signals and Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

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

Originals on platforms bite harder
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming fear year to come: brand plays, original films, together with A Crowded Calendar optimized for nightmares

Dek The current horror year stacks in short order with a January glut, after that flows through summer, and continuing into the year-end corridor, combining brand equity, novel approaches, and data-minded counter-scheduling. Studios and streamers are committing to mid-range economics, big-screen-first runs, and social-fueled campaigns that convert genre releases into national conversation.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has become the most reliable release in release strategies, a genre that can grow when it performs and still cushion the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that modestly budgeted pictures can shape audience talk, 2024 extended the rally with signature-voice projects and stealth successes. The run extended into the 2025 frame, where returns and filmmaker-prestige bets demonstrated there is space for diverse approaches, from series extensions to original features that travel well. The takeaway for 2026 is a run that feels more orchestrated than usual across the industry, with strategic blocks, a balance of legacy names and new packages, and a tightened focus on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Distribution heads claim the category now acts as a flex slot on the rollout map. Horror can launch on nearly any frame, yield a sharp concept for marketing and shorts, and overperform with moviegoers that appear on Thursday previews and stay strong through the follow-up frame if the film works. After a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 pattern reflects belief in that dynamic. The slate rolls out with a weighty January stretch, then uses spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a fall cadence that stretches into the Halloween corridor and afterwards. The arrangement also features the increasing integration of indie distributors and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, create conversation, and widen at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is franchise tending across shared universes and heritage properties. The companies are not just turning out another follow-up. They are aiming to frame continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting pivot that threads a next entry to a original cycle. At the simultaneously, the auteurs behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into on-set craft, on-set effects and distinct locales. That fusion gives the 2026 slate a robust balance of home base and invention, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two marquee pushes 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 seat and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward character piece. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the tonal posture suggests a memory-charged strategy without covering again the last two entries’ sisters thread. Watch for a push anchored in recognizable motifs, first images of characters, and a trailer cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will double down on. As a summer relief option, this one will pursue mainstream recognition through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick shifts to whatever dominates trend lines that spring.

Universal has three distinct projects. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man purchases an AI companion that evolves into a deadly partner. The date positions it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s team likely to revisit strange in-person beats and snackable content that interweaves intimacy and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a public title to become an PR pop closer to the teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. His projects are sold as must-see filmmaker statements, with a concept-forward tease and a follow-up trailer set that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The spooky-season slot offers Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has proven that a gritty, in-camera leaning aesthetic can feel elevated on a disciplined budget. Position this as a grime-caked summer horror blast that embraces offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio lines up two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a dependable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is marketing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both diehards and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build artifacts around lore, and monster aesthetics, elements that can boost format premiums and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in textural authenticity and textual fidelity, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus Features has already set the date for a my company holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is strong.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Digital strategies for 2026 run on tested paths. The Universal horror run land on copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a ladder that fortifies both week-one demand and viewer acquisition in the downstream. Prime Video balances licensed films with world buys and limited cinema engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in back-catalog play, using prominent placements, horror hubs, and featured rows to sustain interest on aggregate take. Netflix remains opportunistic about internal projects and festival pickups, dating horror entries with shorter lead times and coalescing around go-lives with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a laddered of targeted theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a selective basis. The platform has proven amenable to buy select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for retention when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 runway with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is direct: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, modernized 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 telegraphed a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the September weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday frame to expand. That positioning has proved effective for director-led genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception drives. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using small theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Brands and originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate leans toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage household recognition. The risk, as ever, is brand wear. The operating solution is to brand each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is elevating character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-tinted vision from a hot helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the configuration is steady enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and early previews.

Past-three-year patterns help explain the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not block a same-day experiment from paying off when the brand was strong. In 2024, auteur craft horror hit big in premium formats. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel new when they shift POV and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot consecutively, permits marketing to bridge entries through protagonists and motifs and to maintain a flow of assets without long breaks.

How the films are being made

The craft conversations behind this year’s genre telegraph a continued shift toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that underscores atmosphere and fear rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-true language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in long-lead press and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and produces shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta refresh that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster aesthetics and world-building, which are ideal for convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that underscore surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that explode in larger rooms.

Annual flow

January is packed. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the tonal variety opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Pre-summer months tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

August into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a early fall window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited asset reveals that favor idea over plot.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and holiday gift-card burn.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s artificial companion grows into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 tough boss claw to survive on a cut-off island as the control balance upends and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

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 fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting setup that teases the fright of a child’s mercurial perceptions. Rating: rating pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed and marquee-led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that lampoons hot-button genre motifs and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production 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: TBA. Logline: The Further extends again, with a young family bound to older hauntings. Rating: not yet rated. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on pure survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: pending. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 antique diction and elemental fear. Rating: forthcoming. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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

Why 2026 lands now

Three pragmatic forces organize this lineup. First, production that paused or migrated in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and leaner schedules. 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage turnkey scare beats from test screenings, managed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

The slot calculus is real. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will jostle across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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 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 tempo and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, efficient placements, 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 detail, aural 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 Is Well Positioned

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is franchise muscle where it helps, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.