Age-old Evil rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across premium platforms

This chilling ghostly scare-fest from narrative craftsman / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an mythic horror when passersby become victims in a diabolical conflict. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking journey of resistance and timeless dread that will remodel terror storytelling this spooky time. Visualized by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and emotionally thick fearfest follows five figures who awaken sealed in a remote shelter under the malevolent grip of Kyra, a troubled woman haunted by a two-thousand-year-old holy text monster. Brace yourself to be absorbed by a immersive presentation that combines bone-deep fear with mystical narratives, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a recurring element in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is twisted when the demons no longer appear beyond the self, but rather through their own souls. This represents the most sinister dimension of the victims. The result is a riveting psychological battle where the narrative becomes a unforgiving struggle between moral forces.


In a forsaken no-man's-land, five friends find themselves isolated under the malicious grip and possession of a elusive apparition. As the survivors becomes paralyzed to fight her manipulation, detached and attacked by evils mind-shattering, they are obligated to encounter their inner horrors while the time unforgivingly draws closer toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety grows and partnerships break, prompting each individual to evaluate their identity and the concept of decision-making itself. The risk mount with every second, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that fuses otherworldly panic with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to uncover deep fear, an curse from prehistory, influencing emotional fractures, and exposing a spirit that forces self-examination when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra demanded embodying something deeper than fear. She is unseeing until the possession kicks in, and that shift is eerie because it is so personal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be released for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing users everywhere can survive this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first preview, which has attracted over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, bringing the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Join this visceral descent into hell. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to survive these fearful discoveries about the mind.


For previews, production news, and press updates from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YACMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit our film’s homepage.





Modern horror’s major pivot: 2025 U.S. release slate weaves primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, in parallel with returning-series thunder

Across survival horror steeped in ancient scripture to franchise returns as well as acutely observed indies, 2025 is tracking to be the genre’s most multifaceted as well as blueprinted year for the modern era.

Call it full, but it is also focused. the big studios lay down anchors by way of signature titles, even as streaming platforms saturate the fall with emerging auteurs in concert with ancient terrors. Across the art-house lane, the art-house flank is propelled by the tailwinds of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are methodical, as a result 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are assertive. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s pipeline begins the calendar with a headline swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. arriving mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

By late summer, Warner Bros. drops the final chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: 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, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re teams, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retro dread, trauma foregrounded, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The return delves further into myth, builds out the animatronic fear crew, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

SVOD Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatrical skews franchise first, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a body horror duet including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. 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 thirties set vampire folk saga featuring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a calculated bet. No overweight mythology. No canon weight. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. 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 hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Emerging Currents

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming 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 function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The new fright year to come: entries, fresh concepts, in tandem with A packed Calendar optimized for Scares

Dek: The current horror slate packs at the outset with a January pile-up, after that flows through the summer months, and straight through the holiday stretch, combining brand equity, new concepts, and shrewd offsets. Studio marketers and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, box-office-first windows, and social-fueled campaigns that turn these releases into culture-wide discussion.

Where horror stands going into 2026

Horror has shown itself to be the surest play in studio lineups, a vertical that can accelerate when it connects and still insulate the drag when it misses. After the 2023 year showed top brass that low-to-mid budget pictures can own audience talk, the following year maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam flowed into 2025, where revived properties and elevated films underscored there is demand for a spectrum, from series extensions to filmmaker-driven originals that export nicely. The takeaway for 2026 is a lineup that reads highly synchronized across the industry, with strategic blocks, a equilibrium of recognizable IP and new packages, and a sharpened emphasis on big-screen windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on PVOD and digital services.

Marketers add the horror lane now functions as a wildcard on the programming map. The genre can open on many corridors, offer a quick sell for teasers and short-form placements, and outpace with fans that line up on early shows and continue through the second frame if the title pays off. Emerging from a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 mapping telegraphs faith in that equation. The calendar gets underway with a heavy January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for audience offsets, while saving space for a September to October window that pushes into the fright window and past the holiday. The layout also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and streaming partners that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and scale up at the timely point.

Another broad trend is IP stewardship across brand ecosystems and established properties. Major shops are not just releasing another entry. They are seeking to position threaded continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that signals a refreshed voice or a casting choice that threads a fresh chapter to a first wave. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the most watched originals are championing material texture, in-camera effects and concrete locations. That fusion gives 2026 a robust balance of brand comfort and discovery, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount plants an early flag with two centerpiece entries that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the core, framing it as both a handoff and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach conveys a legacy-leaning mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with iconic art, initial cast looks, and a promo sequence hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will feature. As a summer relief option, this one will drive large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick shifts to whatever owns trend lines that spring.

Universal has three clear pushes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is efficient, sorrow-tinged, and commercial: a grieving man purchases an artificial companion that shifts into a harmful mate. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with Universal’s campaign likely to recreate uncanny-valley stunts and quick hits that mixes intimacy and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a branding reveal to become an PR pop closer to the opening teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. The filmmaker’s films are sold as signature events, with a hinting teaser and a later creative that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work 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 helms, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has shown that a in-your-face, prosthetic-heavy style can feel high-value on a disciplined budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror rush that embraces international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, keeping a steady supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is positioning as a reimagined restart 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 directive to serve both core fans and new audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build artifacts around narrative world, and creature builds, elements that can fuel deluxe auditorium demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by textural authenticity and linguistic texture, this time set against lycan legends. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on well-known grooves. The studio’s horror films feed copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a stair-step that fortifies both first-week urgency and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video interleaves outside acquisitions with worldwide buys and short theatrical plays when the data supports it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in deep cuts, using prominent placements, spooky hubs, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on aggregate take. Netflix retains agility about Netflix films and festival grabs, confirming horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops drops with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a one-two of focused cinema runs and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be key 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 selective horror on a discrete basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to take on select projects with established auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is structuring 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 haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, refined for modern sonics 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. Cineverse has signaled a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the September weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-driven genre with wider appeal. 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 sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception justifies. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using limited theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Known brands versus new stories

By number, 2026 tips toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The watch-out, as ever, is overexposure. The pragmatic answer is to pitch each entry as a new angle. Paramount is underscoring core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-inflected take from a ascendant talent. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the bundle is grounded enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent-year comps clarify the playbook. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not stop a simultaneous release test from paying off when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through relationships and themes and to keep assets alive without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued turn toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that centers tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and guild coverage before rolling out a atmospheric tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature craft and set design, which favor expo activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

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 brooding contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the mix of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a bridge slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited pre-release reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s intelligent companion grows into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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

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

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss push to survive on a lonely island as the power balance swivels and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to dread, shaped by Cronin’s hands-on craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production 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 domestic haunting story that filters its scares through a child’s uncertain personal vantage. Rating: rating pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A send-up revival that riffs on modern genre fads and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further opens again, with a fresh family lashed to older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-first horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in progress. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 raw menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three execution-level forces frame this lineup. First, production that downshifted or rearranged in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic 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 drops. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can seize a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where lean-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 More about the author 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.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, 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 detail, sonics, 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.

2026, Ready To Roar

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.