Age-old Evil Reawakens within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled feature, premiering Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

An hair-raising spiritual nightmare movie from dramatist / director Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an timeless nightmare when foreigners become vehicles in a hellish ceremony. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing episode of resilience and primordial malevolence that will reshape horror this season. Helmed by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and immersive thriller follows five young adults who snap to stuck in a secluded hideaway under the oppressive influence of Kyra, a haunted figure inhabited by a ancient sacrosanct terror. Be prepared to be shaken by a motion picture venture that melds intense horror with folklore, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a historical trope in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is challenged when the monsters no longer develop externally, but rather through their own souls. This portrays the most sinister facet of the victims. The result is a riveting mind game where the plotline becomes a unforgiving conflict between light and darkness.


In a barren natural abyss, five characters find themselves marooned under the fiendish dominion and grasp of a secretive entity. As the survivors becomes unable to reject her grasp, exiled and stalked by evils beyond comprehension, they are forced to battle their darkest emotions while the hours mercilessly draws closer toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread mounts and connections erode, driving each participant to rethink their identity and the concept of freedom of choice itself. The pressure magnify with every breath, delivering a nightmarish journey that combines mystical fear with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to awaken instinctual horror, an malevolence beyond time, channeling itself through emotional fractures, and dealing with a curse that questions who we are when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra required summoning something outside normal anguish. She is insensitive until the possession kicks in, and that shift is haunting because it is so personal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be released for viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing audiences internationally can be part of this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its release of trailer #1, which has gathered over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, presenting the nightmare to a worldwide audience.


Mark your calendar for this unforgettable journey into fear. Watch *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to face these chilling revelations about human nature.


For exclusive trailers, director cuts, and social posts from those who lived it, follow @YACFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit youngandcursed.com.





U.S. horror’s decisive shift: 2025 across markets U.S. calendar integrates Mythic Possession, Indie Shockers, stacked beside returning-series thunder

Moving from survivor-centric dread steeped in primordial scripture through to installment follow-ups paired with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is emerging as the most textured and blueprinted year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. top-tier distributors stabilize the year with familiar IP, at the same time premium streamers load up the fall with new perspectives and mythic dread. In parallel, the art-house flank is riding the uplift of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are surgical, so 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The top end is active. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s schedule leads off the quarter with a statement play: a modernized Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in an immediate now. Directed by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Booked into mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Steered by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

At summer’s close, Warner’s schedule delivers the closing chapter from its bankable horror series: 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, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson returns, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: period tinged dread, trauma in the foreground, and eerie supernatural logic. Here the stakes rise, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The return delves further into myth, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, pinning the winter close.

Streamer Exclusives: Low budgets, big teeth

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. 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.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a room scale body horror descent fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. 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.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It looks like sharp programming. No swollen lore. No canon weight. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, led by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

What to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror resurges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

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

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The next fear calendar year ahead: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, alongside A jammed Calendar engineered for jolts

Dek The arriving horror calendar packs in short order with a January bottleneck, before it flows through June and July, and carrying into the festive period, fusing IP strength, new voices, and strategic calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are prioritizing cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and social-fueled campaigns that position genre releases into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has grown into the bankable play in studio calendars, a segment that can break out when it connects and still limit the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 proved to leaders that low-to-mid budget pictures can shape the national conversation, the following year held pace with visionary-driven titles and sleeper breakouts. The carry fed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and arthouse crossovers showed there is demand for varied styles, from franchise continuations to one-and-done originals that translate worldwide. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a calendar that feels more orchestrated than usual across players, with intentional bunching, a equilibrium of established brands and new pitches, and a renewed emphasis on release windows that drive downstream revenue on premium video on demand and platforms.

Studio leaders note the space now works like a schedule utility on the schedule. The genre can bow on virtually any date, provide a sharp concept for teasers and shorts, and outstrip with viewers that respond on previews Thursday and return through the sophomore frame if the picture pays off. Emerging from a work stoppage lag, the 2026 rhythm reflects comfort in that playbook. The year commences with a crowded January lineup, then uses spring and early summer for balance, while keeping space for a fall run that runs into spooky season and past the holiday. The program also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and streamers that can platform a title, build word of mouth, and grow at the proper time.

An added macro current is series management across linked properties and established properties. Major shops are not just making another return. They are setting up ongoing narrative with a occasion, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that connects a incoming chapter to a foundational era. At the alongside this, the filmmakers behind the headline-grabbing originals are celebrating physical effects work, real effects and distinct locales. That mix offers 2026 a vital pairing of trust and surprise, which is the formula for international play.

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

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate projects that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the center, framing it as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-first story. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the creative posture hints at a legacy-leaning angle without replaying the last two entries’ family thread. A campaign is expected built on legacy iconography, early character teases, and a tease cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reboots 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 as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will double down on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will seek wide appeal through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format permitting quick turns to whatever shapes the discourse that spring.

Universal has three distinct releases. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is elegant, loss-driven, and logline-clear: a grieving man onboards an AI companion that becomes a perilous partner. The date puts it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s marketing likely to recreate creepy live activations and snackable content that interlaces romance and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the initial tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s work are sold as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later trailer push that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to fill 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, practical-effects forward treatment can feel elevated on a middle budget. Position this as a hard-R summer horror jolt that pushes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio books two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, keeping a bankable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is calling a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both devotees and new audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build assets around world-building, and monster design, elements that can accelerate premium screens and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in immersive craft and dialect, this time set against lycan legends. Focus Features has already locked the day for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

Platform lanes and windowing

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s releases feed copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a tiered path that fortifies both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video continues to mix outside acquisitions with global pickups and short theatrical plays when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using prominent placements, spooky hubs, and staff picks to sustain interest on lifetime take. Netflix retains agility about Netflix films and festival buys, finalizing horror entries closer to drop and elevating as drops rollouts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a tiered of selective theatrical runs and swift platform pivots that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a discrete basis. The platform has been willing to board select projects with name filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for platform stickiness when the genre conversation spikes.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 slate with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is simple: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, recalibrated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late-season weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, piloting the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the December frame to scale. That positioning has delivered for craft-driven horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception encourages. Expect 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 in parallel, using select theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

IP versus fresh ideas

By volume, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The go-to fix is to pitch each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a Francophone tone from a hot helmer. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries keep oxygen in the system. 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 marooned survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the deal build is steady enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and advance-audience nights.

Rolling three-year comps frame the approach. In 2023, a theater-first model that preserved streaming windows did not hamper a day-and-date experiment from working when the brand was robust. In 2024, art-forward horror punched above its weight in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and increase ambition. 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 two-step approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to interlace chapters through character arcs and themes and to sustain campaign assets without hiatuses.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft rooms behind the 2026 slate point to a continued tilt toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that spotlights grain and menace rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a tease that leans on mood over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and sparks shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta pivot that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature craft and set design, which match well with expo activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that work in PLF.

Month-by-month map

January is jammed. 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 somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the spread of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Post-January through spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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 serves severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that lean on concept not plot.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s algorithmic partner unfolds into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

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 collide with a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss claw to survive on a desolate island as the hierarchy swivels and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

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 modern reimagining that returns the monster to fear, based on Cronin’s practical effects and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting chiller that leverages the terror of a child’s fragile POV. Rating: to be announced. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A parody return that teases contemporary horror memes and true-crime buzz. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 spreads, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a young family tethered to returning horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on pure survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: to be announced. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: to be announced. Production: in progress. 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 era-faithful speech and primal menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three grounded forces organize this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and tighter 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 beaten straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify meme-ready beats from test screenings, precision scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will share space 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 use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the target range. 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 check my blog 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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. Expect a healthy 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 cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing 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 welcome the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, soundcraft, and imagery 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand heft where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.