Primordial Terror Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling supernatural thriller, launching October 2025 across major streaming services

A haunting spiritual nightmare movie from screenwriter / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an prehistoric nightmare when newcomers become conduits in a diabolical ordeal. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving chronicle of staying alive and archaic horror that will resculpt the horror genre this harvest season. Guided by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and tone-heavy cinema piece follows five figures who suddenly rise stranded in a unreachable wooden structure under the hostile sway of Kyra, a possessed female inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old sacrosanct terror. Anticipate to be enthralled by a big screen event that blends bone-deep fear with arcane tradition, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a iconic theme in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is twisted when the monsters no longer descend outside their bodies, but rather from their psyche. This symbolizes the most primal part of the victims. The result is a gripping spiritual tug-of-war where the events becomes a constant face-off between right and wrong.


In a haunting wild, five characters find themselves contained under the possessive sway and curse of a uncanny spirit. As the victims becomes unable to deny her will, severed and stalked by powers inconceivable, they are forced to reckon with their inner horrors while the deathwatch mercilessly ticks toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia rises and bonds erode, requiring each figure to evaluate their true nature and the foundation of free will itself. The consequences accelerate with every heartbeat, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that weaves together spiritual fright with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to uncover basic terror, an darkness beyond time, working through emotional vulnerability, and examining a presence that strips down our being when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra involved tapping into something more primal than sorrow. She is ignorant until the demon emerges, and that conversion is harrowing because it is so deep.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering viewers from coast to coast can face this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first trailer, which has pulled in over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, making the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Do not miss this unforgettable descent into darkness. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to face these chilling revelations about the soul.


For sneak peeks, on-set glimpses, and alerts straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across social media and visit the official website.





Horror’s major pivot: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts braids together ancient-possession motifs, microbudget gut-punches, set against brand-name tremors

Kicking off with survivor-centric dread saturated with biblical myth all the way to series comebacks together with focused festival visions, 2025 is emerging as horror’s most layered as well as deliberate year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Top studios bookend the months via recognizable brands, simultaneously premium streamers stack the fall with new perspectives plus ancient terrors. Across the art-house lane, festival-forward creators is catching the carry of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and now, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, hence 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

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

Universal’s distribution arm opens the year with a headline swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a modern-day environment. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. landing in mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Led by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer winds down, the Warner Bros. banner releases the last chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re boards, and the memorable motifs return: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The return delves further into myth, grows the animatronic horror lineup, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It bows in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror chamber piece featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale featuring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 looks like sharp programming. No bloated mythology. No brand fatigue. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Signals and Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror ascends again
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back 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. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn density and winter pivot

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The 2026 chiller calendar year ahead: entries, non-franchise titles, in tandem with A jammed Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek: The fresh scare cycle lines up from day one with a January wave, after that spreads through the warm months, and well into the December corridor, mixing brand heft, inventive spins, and data-minded offsets. The big buyers and platforms are focusing on smart costs, box-office-first windows, and viral-minded pushes that pivot these releases into mainstream chatter.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror marketplace has become the consistent option in annual schedules, a lane that can accelerate when it lands and still insulate the downside when it does not. After the 2023 year demonstrated to decision-makers that disciplined-budget chillers can command the discourse, the following year continued the surge with director-led heat and surprise hits. The run extended into the 2025 frame, where reboots and critical darlings showed there is demand for a variety of tones, from returning installments to original one-offs that translate worldwide. The result for 2026 is a run that appears tightly organized across the major shops, with planned clusters, a harmony of known properties and new pitches, and a reinvigorated eye on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on PVOD and home streaming.

Planners observe the category now acts as a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can bow on nearly any frame, yield a sharp concept for spots and social clips, and over-index with fans that arrive on Thursday nights and stick through the week two if the entry works. After a work stoppage lag, the 2026 setup reflects comfort in that model. The calendar gets underway with a weighty January lineup, then targets spring into early summer for balance, while reserving space for a October build that stretches into Halloween and into post-Halloween. The program also underscores the continuing integration of indie arms and streamers that can launch in limited release, generate chatter, and scale up at the precise moment.

An added macro current is series management across linked properties and classic IP. The studios are not just releasing another next film. They are trying to present continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that indicates a refreshed voice or a casting move that threads a fresh chapter to a first wave. At the same time, the helmers behind the marquee originals are doubling down on in-camera technique, in-camera effects and vivid settings. That mix produces 2026 a smart balance of recognition and surprise, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile bets that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, setting it up as both a baton pass and a foundation-forward character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a memory-charged approach without looping the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Anticipate a campaign built on classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a tiered teaser plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects 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 as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will feature. As a summer contrast play, this one will seek general-audience talk through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format inviting quick updates to whatever drives horror talk that spring.

Universal has three separate projects. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is simple, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an artificial companion that evolves into a killer companion. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on uncanny live moments and micro spots that interlaces love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a branding reveal to become an headline beat closer to the early tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has More about the author owned before. Peele’s pictures are presented as marquee events, with a teaser that holds back and a follow-up trailer set that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to 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 steers, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, practical-effects forward strategy can feel high-value on a controlled budget. Look for a blood-soaked summer horror shot that emphasizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio sets two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, keeping a proven supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is marketing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both players and new audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build materials around universe detail, and monster craft, elements that can amplify large-format demand and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror driven by meticulous craft and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The specialty arm has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Digital platform strategies

Platform strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s releases flow to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a structure that fortifies both premiere heat and trial spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video will mix third-party pickups with cross-border buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using curated hubs, seasonal hubs, and curated strips to increase tail value on overall cume. Netflix keeps flexible about first-party entries and festival wins, dating horror entries near their drops and coalescing around drops with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a one-two of targeted cinema placements and accelerated platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a curated basis. The platform has been willing to purchase select projects with acclaimed directors or star packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly activity when the genre conversation heats up.

Art-house genre prospects

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 proposition is tight: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, reimagined for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a big-screen first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festival season if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday corridor to widen. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-driven genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception drives. 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 hand in hand, using select theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their membership.

IP versus fresh ideas

By tilt, 2026 leans in favor of the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage legacy awareness. The concern, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to pitch each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is emphasizing character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-accented approach from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the deal build is anchored enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years illuminate the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was powerful. In 2024, precision craft horror popped in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to leave creative active without lulls.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft conversations behind these films suggest a continued shift toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that underscores aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft coverage before rolling out a tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and earns shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta inflection that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature design and production design, which match well with expo activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in premium houses.

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 somber counterpoint amid marquee brands. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Q1 into Q2 prepare summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are weblink not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

August and September into October leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited teasers that stress concept over spoilers.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s intelligent companion unfolds into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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

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 be swallowed by a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 scramble to survive on a remote island as the chain of command swivels and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 home-set haunting tale that filters its scares through a child’s uncertain subjective view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A send-up revival that targets present-day genre chatter and true crime fascinations. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography set 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 surges, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household anchored to older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on true survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBD. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: proceeding. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 elemental menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 lands now

Three workable forces shape this lineup. First, production that stalled or shifted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify clippable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 lower and mid-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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundscape, and image-making 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, Lined Up To Scare

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is recognizable IP where it plays, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.