Primeval Evil emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding chiller, launching October 2025 across premium platforms

One terrifying ghostly shockfest from storyteller / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an ancient evil when unknowns become victims in a supernatural ceremony. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking story of staying alive and ancient evil that will remodel genre cinema this season. Crafted by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and eerie cinema piece follows five teens who snap to trapped in a off-grid house under the aggressive influence of Kyra, a mysterious girl consumed by a timeless biblical force. Ready yourself to be shaken by a big screen presentation that fuses instinctive fear with arcane tradition, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a well-established element in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is flipped when the forces no longer come from a different plane, but rather internally. This suggests the darkest facet of each of them. The result is a emotionally raw mind game where the narrative becomes a constant battle between heaven and hell.


In a unforgiving landscape, five individuals find themselves sealed under the malevolent dominion and curse of a haunted female presence. As the companions becomes unresisting to reject her grasp, severed and pursued by creatures unfathomable, they are made to battle their deepest fears while the time relentlessly winds toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension swells and partnerships collapse, forcing each individual to reconsider their personhood and the nature of freedom of choice itself. The hazard escalate with every second, delivering a paranormal ride that merges demonic fright with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to awaken instinctual horror, an malevolence beyond recorded history, embedding itself in psychological breaks, and dealing with a entity that questions who we are when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra asked for exploring something beneath mortal despair. She is clueless until the spirit seizes her, and that shift is gut-wrenching because it is so raw.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure audiences in all regions can enjoy this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first preview, which has seen over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, taking the terror to lovers of terror across nations.


Don’t miss this bone-rattling spiral into evil. Stream *Young & Cursed* this launch day to confront these terrifying truths about the mind.


For previews, filmmaker commentary, and promotions straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACMovie across platforms and visit the official website.





Today’s horror watershed moment: 2025 stateside slate interlaces archetypal-possession themes, independent shockers, in parallel with legacy-brand quakes

Across pressure-cooker survival tales infused with legendary theology through to franchise returns paired with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is tracking to be the most variegated together with strategic year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio majors bookend the months with familiar IP, in tandem streamers pack the fall with debut heat set against scriptural shivers. At the same time, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the uplift of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are exacting, and 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium dread reemerges

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal camp fires the first shot with a marquee bet: a refreshed Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in an immediate now. Under director Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. dated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Led by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. Pictures drops the final chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the memorable motifs return: vintage toned fear, trauma centered writing, and eerie supernatural logic. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, stretches the animatronic parade, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It arrives in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Offerings: No Budget, No Problem

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable led by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Conceived 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 dread here runs psychological, charged by 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. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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 is a clever angle. No swollen lore. No legacy baggage. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

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

Franchise Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, under Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Trend Lines

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror swings back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Autumn density and winter pivot

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. 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. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The upcoming spook cycle: continuations, new stories, paired with A jammed Calendar designed for screams

Dek: The arriving terror cycle packs up front with a January pile-up, then flows through the warm months, and deep into the December corridor, blending legacy muscle, fresh ideas, and calculated counter-scheduling. Studios and streamers are embracing responsible budgets, cinema-first plans, and social-fueled campaigns that position genre titles into water-cooler talk.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror sector has emerged as the surest option in studio calendars, a corner that can grow when it resonates and still limit the liability when it underperforms. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that efficiently budgeted chillers can dominate audience talk, the following year extended the rally with visionary-driven titles and word-of-mouth wins. The head of steam pushed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and festival-grade titles highlighted there is demand for several lanes, from continued chapters to non-IP projects that play globally. The result for 2026 is a grid that is strikingly coherent across the field, with defined corridors, a blend of known properties and new concepts, and a renewed commitment on exclusive windows that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now performs as a utility player on the slate. Horror can roll out on almost any weekend, generate a tight logline for previews and vertical videos, and punch above weight with audiences that lean in on advance nights and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the picture satisfies. After a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 plan shows belief in that setup. The slate kicks off with a busy January corridor, then uses spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while saving space for a October build that reaches into Halloween and afterwards. The grid also highlights the expanded integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can grow from platform, ignite recommendations, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

A companion trend is brand curation across unified worlds and legacy IP. Studio teams are not just producing another installment. They are trying to present lore continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title design that broadcasts a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that anchors a next film to a initial period. At the very same time, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are championing hands-on technique, practical gags and specific settings. That blend delivers 2026 a lively combination of home base and newness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount marks the early tempo with two prominent bets that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the lead, signaling it as both a baton pass and a classic-mode character-centered film. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the tonal posture signals a legacy-leaning approach without covering again the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Expect a marketing push driven by legacy iconography, first images of characters, and a trailer cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue large awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format fitting quick updates to whatever defines the discourse that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, loss-driven, and big-hook: a grieving man implements an machine companion that grows into a perilous partner. The date places it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the Universal machine likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and quick hits that fuses intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a official title to become an earned moment closer to the first trailer. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s work are branded as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later trailer push that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has consistently shown that a in-your-face, practical-first style can feel premium on a controlled budget. Look for a grime-caked summer horror blast that maximizes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending a steady supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is positioning as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both players and curious audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign pieces around canon, and practical creature work, elements that can drive deluxe auditorium demand and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets 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 historical precision and dialect, this time steeped in lycan lore. The specialty arm has already locked the day for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is robust.

Platform lanes and windowing

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a sequence that optimizes both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the later phase. Prime Video stitches together licensed content with worldwide entries and select theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library pulls, using featured rows, October hubs, and programmed rows to increase tail value on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix films and festival grabs, scheduling horror entries tight to release and staging as events debuts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a one-two of tailored theatrical exposure and quick platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to board select projects with established auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for retention when the genre conversation builds.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is simple: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, retooled for modern mix and navigate here grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a big-screen first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, marshalling the project through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday slot to increase reach. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-first horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using limited theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate skews toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is staleness. The standing approach is to pitch each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is underscoring core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a rising filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the configuration is anchored enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps outline the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that preserved streaming windows did not hamper a hybrid test from working when the brand was robust. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror punched above its weight in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they pivot perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on 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 shot consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to connect the chapters through cast and motif and to hold creative in the market without pause points.

Production craft signals

The production chatter behind this year’s genre suggest a continued move toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that spotlights aura and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in deep-dive features and department features before rolling out a teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at red-band excess, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta reframe that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature execution and sets, which lend themselves to con floor moments and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel must-have. Look for trailers that foreground precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is heavy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month wraps 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 formidable, but the range of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Late Q1 and spring set up the summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

End of summer through fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a transitional slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited plot reveals that elevate concept over story.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday gift-card burn.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s machine mate unfolds into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her unyielding boss struggle to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to menace, based on Cronin’s practical effects and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting scenario that filters its scares through a minor’s wavering point of view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-financed and celebrity-led eerie 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 satire sequel that lampoons present-day genre chatter and true-crime buzz. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 international twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new household lashed to older hauntings. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-driven horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: to be announced. Production: in progress. 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-precise speech and primal menace. Rating: TBA. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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

Why this year, why now

Three pragmatic forces structure this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical 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, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on clippable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 breakout 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, 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 pace and range. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient placements, 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, sonics, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is recognizable IP where it plays, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, lock the reveals, and let the gasps sell the seats.