Primordial Dread returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across premium platforms

This bone-chilling supernatural scare-fest from scriptwriter / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an primordial nightmare when guests become subjects in a hellish ordeal. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching journey of living through and forgotten curse that will resculpt the horror genre this cool-weather season. Created by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and atmospheric thriller follows five young adults who regain consciousness caught in a hidden structure under the hostile rule of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a millennia-old scriptural evil. Prepare to be enthralled by a big screen spectacle that melds bodily fright with legendary tales, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a classic theme in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is redefined when the demons no longer arise from external sources, but rather internally. This suggests the grimmest dimension of each of them. The result is a bone-chilling internal warfare where the narrative becomes a brutal push-pull between righteousness and malevolence.


In a bleak no-man's-land, five figures find themselves cornered under the dark rule and haunting of a mysterious spirit. As the protagonists becomes powerless to deny her grasp, left alone and preyed upon by unknowns unimaginable, they are made to face their darkest emotions while the doomsday meter ruthlessly draws closer toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust surges and ties erode, requiring each character to reconsider their true nature and the principle of personal agency itself. The threat grow with every short lapse, delivering a scare-fueled ride that intertwines mystical fear with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to dig into elemental fright, an malevolence born of forgotten ages, emerging via our fears, and testing a darkness that threatens selfhood when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra required summoning something darker than pain. She is unaware until the curse activates, and that transition is haunting because it is so unshielded.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for worldwide release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure users around the globe can engage with this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original clip, which has attracted over massive response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, offering the tale to scare fans abroad.


Make sure to see this haunted descent into hell. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to face these fearful discoveries about human nature.


For previews, making-of footage, and announcements from behind the lens, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across fan hubs and visit the official website.





Contemporary horror’s pivotal crossroads: calendar year 2025 U.S. lineup blends ancient-possession motifs, Indie Shockers, set against IP aftershocks

Kicking off with life-or-death fear rooted in biblical myth and stretching into brand-name continuations and focused festival visions, 2025 is coalescing into the genre’s most multifaceted combined with deliberate year in recent memory.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. the big studios set cornerstones with established lines, while digital services front-load the fall with first-wave breakthroughs in concert with old-world menace. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is propelled by the afterglow of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, however this time, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are disciplined, hence 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: The Return of Prestige Fear

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s distribution arm lights the fuse with a bold swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. From director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Slated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Steered by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

When summer tapers, Warner Bros. launches the swan song inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The stakes escalate here, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The next entry deepens the tale, grows the animatronic horror lineup, bridging teens and legacy players. It lands in December, securing the winter cap.

Platform Plays: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a sealed box body horror arc featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also rising is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable starring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a smart play. No heavy handed lore. No franchise baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They are more runway than museum.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Brands: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Key Trends

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

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

Season Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The oncoming spook cycle: entries, new stories, as well as A busy Calendar aimed at goosebumps

Dek The fresh horror slate crams right away with a January traffic jam, from there runs through the warm months, and deep into the festive period, combining brand equity, novel approaches, and tactical alternatives. Studio marketers and platforms are leaning into lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and social-fueled campaigns that convert horror entries into all-audience topics.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has become the predictable counterweight in programming grids, a corner that can accelerate when it lands and still protect the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 signaled to top brass that mid-range genre plays can galvanize audience talk, 2024 carried the beat with festival-darling auteurs and surprise hits. The upswing rolled into 2025, where legacy revivals and critical darlings highlighted there is appetite for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to fresh IP that export nicely. The sum for the 2026 slate is a run that feels more orchestrated than usual across players, with strategic blocks, a spread of marquee IP and new concepts, and a reinvigorated eye on release windows that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and platforms.

Studio leaders note the space now performs as a fill-in ace on the rollout map. Horror can launch on almost any weekend, yield a sharp concept for creative and reels, and outperform with demo groups that lean in on advance nights and hold through the subsequent weekend if the film satisfies. Exiting a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 mapping indicates comfort in that engine. The calendar begins with a weighty January window, then primes spring and early summer for contrast, while leaving room for a fall cadence that pushes into All Hallows period and past Halloween. The layout also illustrates the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and streamers that can platform a title, ignite recommendations, and expand at the timely point.

A companion trend is IP cultivation across interlocking continuities and storied titles. The players are not just producing another installment. They are working to present connection with a sense of event, whether that is a title presentation that indicates a fresh attitude or a casting choice that binds a next entry to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating material texture, practical effects and site-specific worlds. That blend offers the 2026 slate a robust balance of home base and invention, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile bets that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the heart, marketing it as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward character piece. Production is active in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a legacy-leaning approach without going over the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Watch for a push leaning on heritage visuals, first-look character reveals, and a promo sequence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will drive broad awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format making room for quick adjustments to whatever defines pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three specific lanes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is straightforward, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man activates an machine companion that evolves into a dangerous lover. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate viral uncanny stunts and short-form creative that interweaves attachment and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a name unveil to become an teaser payoff closer to the early tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are presented as must-see filmmaker statements, with a minimalist tease and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway gives the studio room to own 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has made clear that a tactile, on-set effects have a peek here led strategy can feel prestige on a middle budget. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror blast that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio lines up two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, carrying a bankable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is framing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both core fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build materials around canon, and creature effects, elements that can stoke premium format interest and fan-culture participation.

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 sustains Eggers’ run of period horror defined by careful craft and period speech, this time engaging werewolf myth. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform windowing in 2026 run on tested paths. The studio’s horror films shift to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a pacing that amplifies both FOMO and viewer acquisition in the downstream. Prime Video combines licensed titles with global originals and limited cinema engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library curation, using editorial spots, Halloween hubs, and curated strips to keep attention on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about originals and festival pickups, finalizing horror entries tight to release and positioning as event drops releases with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a one-two of focused cinema runs and short jumps to platform that turns chatter to conversion. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a situational basis. The platform has indicated interest to board select projects with acclaimed directors or star-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 lane with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is simple: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, upgraded for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the back half.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, stewarding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday dates to scale. That positioning has worked well for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception prompts. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using mini theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

Franchises versus originals

By share, the 2026 slate leans toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate brand equity. The caveat, as ever, is diminishing returns. The near-term solution is to position each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is foregrounding relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects add oxygen. 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, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. 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 comforting enough to spark pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Recent comps contextualize the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that observed windows did not obstruct a same-day experiment from working when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they shift POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, creates space for marketing to bridge entries through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without doldrums.

Craft and creative trends

The shop talk behind these films foreshadow a continued bias toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that emphasizes texture and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft profiles and department features before rolling out a initial teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta pivot that centers an original star. Resident Evil will live or die on monster aesthetics and world-building, which align with expo activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel definitive. Look for trailers that emphasize razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that shine in top rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. 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 quiet contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the tonal variety carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Pre-summer months seed summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can deliver 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 finished their premium pass.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited disclosures that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can play the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday gift-card burn.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genes. 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 bereaved man’s machine mate mutates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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

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 run into a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 hard-edged boss try to survive on a desolate island as the hierarchy reverses and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to chill, anchored by Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting story that pipes the unease through a young child’s volatile POV. Rating: pending. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-financed and celebrity-led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that satirizes today’s horror trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites detonates, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a another family tethered to past horrors. Rating: pending. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward true survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: pending. 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 period-specific language and raw menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026, why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces drive this lineup. First, production that decelerated or reshuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage turnkey scare beats from test screenings, metered scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Calendar math also matters. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can own 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 lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 stealth-hit search 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, soundcraft, and camera work 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

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand heft where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the scares sell the seats.