Ancient Malevolence Returns within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled feature, premiering Oct 2025 on major streaming services

One hair-raising metaphysical fear-driven tale from dramatist / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an forgotten horror when guests become subjects in a demonic conflict. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping account of continuance and primordial malevolence that will reconstruct the fear genre this autumn. Guided by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and immersive tale follows five characters who arise sealed in a wilderness-bound wooden structure under the menacing dominion of Kyra, a young woman controlled by a two-thousand-year-old biblical force. Steel yourself to be ensnared by a immersive display that harmonizes primitive horror with mythic lore, debuting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a classic concept in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is redefined when the fiends no longer emerge beyond the self, but rather inside them. This suggests the shadowy facet of every character. The result is a gripping identity crisis where the events becomes a soul-crushing contest between innocence and sin.


In a abandoned natural abyss, five souls find themselves caught under the unholy dominion and domination of a shadowy apparition. As the protagonists becomes unresisting to resist her dominion, left alone and stalked by forces inconceivable, they are forced to deal with their raw vulnerabilities while the seconds ruthlessly edges forward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear builds and associations dissolve, urging each individual to reflect on their personhood and the philosophy of free will itself. The tension grow with every second, delivering a chilling narrative that marries ghostly evil with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to tap into deep fear, an entity rooted in antiquity, manifesting in emotional fractures, and highlighting a will that peels away humanity when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was centered on something darker than pain. She is in denial until the evil takes hold, and that pivot is bone-chilling because it is so internal.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that subscribers everywhere can face this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its intro video, which has earned over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, bringing the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Be sure to catch this bone-rattling descent into hell. Join *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to experience these spiritual awakenings about inner darkness.


For behind-the-scenes access, behind-the-scenes content, and reveals from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursed across fan hubs and visit the official digital haunt.





The horror genre’s tipping point: the year 2025 U.S. rollouts blends old-world possession, independent shockers, alongside IP aftershocks

Across pressure-cooker survival tales saturated with legendary theology to legacy revivals alongside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is lining up as the most complex together with intentionally scheduled year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. top-tier distributors plant stakes across the year using marquee IP, while OTT services crowd the fall with fresh voices together with mythic dread. Across the art-house lane, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the momentum from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the other windows are mapped with care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are surgical, hence 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s pipeline begins the calendar with a headline swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell anchored by 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. targeting mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer eases, Warner’s slate unveils the final movement of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: 70s style chill, trauma driven plotting, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The next entry deepens the tale, broadens the animatronic terror cast, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It bows in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Plays: No Budget, No Problem

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable with Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No heavy handed lore. No canon weight. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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

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

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, under Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

What to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror comes roaring back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Near Term Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The upcoming Horror lineup: entries, new stories, as well as A busy Calendar calibrated for goosebumps

Dek The arriving scare year clusters from the jump with a January cluster, from there stretches through midyear, and pushing into the festive period, mixing brand heft, new concepts, and tactical counter-scheduling. Major distributors and platforms are betting on efficient budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and short-form initiatives that turn these releases into national conversation.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror has solidified as the sturdy release in programming grids, a space that can spike when it clicks and still cushion the risk when it does not. After the 2023 year proved to executives that disciplined-budget pictures can steer the national conversation, the following year held pace with festival-darling auteurs and sleeper breakouts. The energy carried into 2025, where reawakened brands and elevated films proved there is appetite for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to one-and-done originals that play globally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a programming that seems notably aligned across the major shops, with strategic blocks, a blend of legacy names and new packages, and a reinvigorated commitment on exclusive windows that power the aftermarket on premium on-demand and digital services.

Marketers add the horror lane now works like a flex slot on the calendar. The genre can bow on nearly any frame, yield a grabby hook for spots and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with moviegoers that turn out on first-look nights and sustain through the second frame if the title delivers. Exiting a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration underscores assurance in that engine. The calendar launches with a loaded January lineup, then turns to spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while leaving room for a autumn stretch that extends to All Hallows period and past Halloween. The grid also includes the tightening integration of boutique distributors and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and move wide at the precise moment.

A further high-level trend is brand curation across unified worlds and legacy franchises. Big banners are not just greenlighting another sequel. They are shaping as story carry-over with a premium feel, whether that is a title presentation that suggests a re-angled tone or a lead change that reconnects a new installment to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into real-world builds, makeup and prosthetics and vivid settings. That blend delivers 2026 a vital pairing of known notes and invention, which is what works overseas.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount sets the tone early with two centerpiece plays that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, signaling it as both a passing of the torch and a heritage-centered character-first story. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture telegraphs a classic-referencing treatment without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected rooted in classic imagery, character previews, and a tiered teaser plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will feature. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will seek wide appeal through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever shapes horror talk that spring.

Universal has three unique projects. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tidy, tragic, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an intelligent companion that turns into a perilous partner. The date slots it at the front of a busy month, with the Universal machine likely to mirror strange in-person beats and quick hits that hybridizes longing and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title drop to become an earned moment closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s pictures are presented as marquee events, with a teaser that holds back and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The spooky-season slot offers Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, practical-first mix can feel premium on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror shock that leans hard into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio mounts two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, continuing a proven supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is selling as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both players and novices. The fall slot gives Sony time to build materials around environmental design, and practical creature work, elements that can stoke premium format interest and fan-culture participation.

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 follows Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by immersive craft and archaic language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The label has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can open this page narrow then widen if early reception is robust.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform tactics for 2026 run on well-known grooves. The Universal horror run head to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that amplifies both premiere heat and subscription bumps in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed films with international acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library curation, using curated hubs, fright rows, and featured rows to keep attention on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps flexible about Netflix originals and festival deals, confirming horror entries toward the drop and elevating as drops premieres with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a hybrid of targeted cinema placements and accelerated platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a discrete basis. The platform has indicated interest to board select projects with award winners or headline-cast packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 lane with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is tight: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, elevated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical rollout for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the back half.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas window to move out. That positioning has shown results for director-led genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception warrants. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Series vs standalone

By volume, 2026 skews toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness name recognition. The question, as ever, is brand wear. The go-to fix is to pitch each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is elevating character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the cast-creatives package is known enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Three-year comps outline the strategy. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that maintained windows did not preclude a dual release from delivering when the brand was potent. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror punched above its weight in large-format rooms. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they shift POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward 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 lensed back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to keep assets in-market without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate forecast a continued shift toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that highlights tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in trade spotlights and artisan spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that elevates tone over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a self-referential reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature and environment design, which favor booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel key. Look for trailers that highlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

The schedule at a glance

January is crowded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid larger brand plays. The month concludes 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 serious, but the spread of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

End of summer through fall leans IP. 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 bridge slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a opaque tease strategy and limited asset reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s machine mate becomes something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss fight to survive on a rugged island as the hierarchy upends and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to menace, based on Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting story that toys with the dread of a child’s unreliable interpretations. Rating: rating pending. Production: locked. Positioning: major-studio and celebrity-led spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that needles hot-button genre motifs and true-crime obsessions. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras due to roll 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 multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a unlucky family bound to residual nightmares. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward classic survival-horror tone over action fireworks. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBA. Production: proceeding. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and raw menace. Rating: TBD. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces organize this lineup. First, production that slowed or recalendared in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and accelerated schedules. 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest meme-ready beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Another factor is the scheduling math. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will compete across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

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

The surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where lean-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 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 chilly, 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 sequence upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

A Promising 2026

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is franchise muscle where it helps, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to Source see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the fear sell the seats.