Primeval Terror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 on global platforms

This chilling unearthly scare-fest from literary architect / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an long-buried dread when foreigners become victims in a cursed contest. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a intense account of survival and archaic horror that will reimagine the fear genre this harvest season. Visualized by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and eerie suspense flick follows five teens who suddenly rise confined in a remote wooden structure under the unfriendly dominion of Kyra, a haunted figure claimed by a 2,000-year-old sacrosanct terror. Brace yourself to be captivated by a narrative presentation that blends bone-deep fear with timeless legends, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a classic element in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is reimagined when the monsters no longer descend outside the characters, but rather from within. This suggests the most hidden part of the group. The result is a gripping cognitive warzone where the intensity becomes a unyielding clash between divinity and wickedness.


In a forsaken outland, five adults find themselves trapped under the fiendish influence and inhabitation of a mysterious entity. As the companions becomes paralyzed to fight her curse, abandoned and targeted by entities indescribable, they are required to deal with their soulful dreads while the timeline relentlessly ticks onward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension rises and friendships crack, urging each figure to reconsider their identity and the idea of conscious will itself. The tension amplify with every short lapse, delivering a horror experience that weaves together ghostly evil with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to draw upon core terror, an power that existed before mankind, emerging via emotional fractures, and questioning a evil that threatens selfhood when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra was centered on something rooted in terror. She is unaware until the evil takes hold, and that metamorphosis is emotionally raw because it is so close.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for digital release beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing users in all regions can enjoy this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its initial teaser, which has pulled in over notable views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, exporting the fear to scare fans abroad.


Do not miss this mind-warping exploration of dread. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this launch day to acknowledge these chilling revelations about mankind.


For film updates, filmmaker commentary, and insider scoops directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursed across fan hubs and visit the movie portal.





Modern horror’s decisive shift: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule integrates biblical-possession ideas, indie terrors, in parallel with legacy-brand quakes

Running from last-stand terror drawn from ancient scripture all the way to series comebacks set beside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 looks like the genre’s most multifaceted as well as calculated campaign year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio majors stabilize the year with known properties, in tandem platform operators flood the fall with debut heat and ancient terrors. On another front, the independent cohort is catching the kinetic energy from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige terror resurfaces

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 set the base, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s slate lights the fuse with a big gambit: a contemporary Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a clear present-tense world. From director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. targeting mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. Pictures releases the last chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson resumes command, and the memorable motifs return: 70s style chill, trauma foregrounded, along with eerie supernatural rules. This pass pushes higher, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The new chapter enriches the lore, stretches the animatronic parade, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It bows in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

SVOD Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a sealed box body horror arc including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story featuring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

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 Underneath: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Conceived and directed 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 the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is canny scheduling. No overweight mythology. No sequel clutter. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. 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, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

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

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Long Running Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror retakes ground
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Laurels convert to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Outlook: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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 scrap for air. 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. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The new fright release year: follow-ups, fresh concepts, together with A loaded Calendar engineered for nightmares

Dek: The current terror season lines up from the jump with a January pile-up, from there unfolds through summer, and straight through the holiday frame, balancing legacy muscle, original angles, and data-minded counterplay. Major distributors and platforms are betting on lean spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and influencer-ready assets that turn these releases into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This space has shown itself to be the surest release in studio slates, a segment that can grow when it lands and still protect the exposure when it stumbles. After the 2023 year showed studio brass that low-to-mid budget genre plays can steer cultural conversation, the following year continued the surge with filmmaker-forward plays and quiet over-performers. The tailwind moved into 2025, where legacy revivals and festival-grade titles signaled there is appetite for different modes, from ongoing IP entries to non-IP projects that play globally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a grid that reads highly synchronized across companies, with strategic blocks, a blend of household franchises and new packages, and a reinvigorated focus on theater exclusivity that enhance post-theatrical value on premium digital rental and home streaming.

Buyers contend the category now serves as a versatile piece on the distribution slate. The genre can open on a wide range of weekends, create a simple premise for ad units and platform-native cuts, and outpace with patrons that turn out on advance nights and sustain through the subsequent weekend if the feature fires. Post a work stoppage lag, the 2026 layout telegraphs confidence in that approach. The slate gets underway with a thick January band, then leans on spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while holding room for a late-year stretch that carries into the fright window and beyond. The grid also highlights the expanded integration of specialized labels and SVOD players that can build gradually, fuel WOM, and roll out at the sweet spot.

A second macro trend is IP stewardship across connected story worlds and heritage properties. The studios are not just making another continuation. They are shaping as threaded continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that signals a re-angled tone or a star attachment that bridges a new entry to a initial period. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the marquee originals are prioritizing hands-on technique, in-camera effects and distinct locales. That convergence offers the 2026 slate a vital pairing of recognition and surprise, which is why the genre exports well.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two centerpiece titles that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the spine, framing it as both a baton pass and a return-to-roots character-centered film. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the tonal posture conveys a fan-service aware approach without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Plan for a rollout rooted in signature symbols, intro reveals, and a rollout cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will double down on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will seek broad awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format inviting quick updates to whatever rules genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three clear projects. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tidy, melancholic, and concept-forward: a grieving man activates an synthetic partner that escalates into a lethal partner. The date positions it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate creepy live activations and snackable content that blurs romance and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a official title to become an fan moment closer to the debut look. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. The filmmaker’s films are branded as creative events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second trailer wave that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor gives Universal room to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage 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 starring. The franchise has demonstrated that a flesh-and-blood, practical-effects forward style can feel top-tier on a moderate cost. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror jolt that leans hard into worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio books two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, extending a evergreen supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is positioning as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both players and general audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build assets around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify deluxe auditorium demand and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on rigorous craft and dialect, this time exploring werewolf lore. The label has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is strong.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform plans for 2026 run on known playbooks. The Universal horror run window into copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that elevates both opening-weekend urgency and subscription bumps in the after-window. Prime Video balances third-party pickups with worldwide buys and select theatrical runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in deep cuts, using featured rows, horror hubs, and curated rows to sustain interest on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays opportunistic about own-slate titles and festival acquisitions, confirming horror entries near launch and coalescing around debuts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a two-step of limited theatrical footprints and speedy platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown appetite to invest in select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for sustained usage when the genre conversation peaks.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 pipeline with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is straightforward: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, refined for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas corridor to increase reach. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-driven genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception allows. Do not be surprised by 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 as partners, using mini theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their membership.

Series vs standalone

By weight, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit name recognition. The challenge, as ever, is diminishing returns. The standing approach is to pitch each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is elevating character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-flavored turn from a hot helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the package is grounded enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Rolling three-year comps help explain the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not stop a day-date try from winning when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror punched above its weight in premium formats. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they shift POV and raise the stakes. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, creates space for marketing to relate entries through character web and themes and to keep assets alive without long gaps.

Behind-the-camera trends

The craft rooms behind the 2026 slate foreshadow a continued turn toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that foregrounds unease and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft features before rolling out a mood teaser that withholds plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta refresh that centers its original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster realization and design, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that center precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in big rooms.

Calendar cadence

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 moody palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the palette of tones ensures lanes for each, and the Get More Info five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Q1 into Q2 prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a bridge slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited pre-release reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads 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 widowed man’s intelligent companion mutates into something dangerously intimate. 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss claw to survive on a remote island as the control dynamic reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to chill, based on Cronin’s physical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting setup that refracts terror through a child’s uncertain subjective view. Rating: pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: major-studio and headline-actor led supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A spoof revival that riffs on hot-button genre motifs and true-crime crazes. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming slated 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 bursts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a young family linked to ancient dread. Rating: TBA. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A new start designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-driven horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. Production: active. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and elemental fear. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a big-screen run before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026, why now

Three operational forces frame this lineup. First, production that eased or reshuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work repeatable beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will jostle across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

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

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night 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 materiality, sonics, 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.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is recognizable IP where it plays, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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, roll out exact trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shudders sell the seats.