Primordial Evil Emerges within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked horror thriller, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

An frightening otherworldly terror film from literary architect / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an forgotten dread when newcomers become instruments in a cursed ceremony. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking tale of resistance and mythic evil that will reimagine terror storytelling this cool-weather season. Directed by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and tone-heavy cinema piece follows five individuals who snap to sealed in a isolated shelter under the oppressive power of Kyra, a cursed figure dominated by a biblical-era Old Testament spirit. Be warned to be hooked by a visual ride that weaves together bodily fright with arcane tradition, debuting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a historical trope in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is reversed when the forces no longer develop outside their bodies, but rather inside them. This embodies the most terrifying part of the protagonists. The result is a bone-chilling cognitive warzone where the story becomes a soul-crushing clash between divinity and wickedness.


In a forsaken outland, five teens find themselves marooned under the sinister control and grasp of a mysterious entity. As the youths becomes submissive to fight her influence, severed and targeted by terrors beyond comprehension, they are compelled to acknowledge their soulful dreads while the timeline relentlessly draws closer toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust surges and connections disintegrate, compelling each character to reflect on their personhood and the notion of self-determination itself. The stakes grow with every second, delivering a scare-fueled ride that intertwines paranormal dread with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to awaken elemental fright, an spirit born of forgotten ages, channeling itself through emotional vulnerability, and navigating a being that forces self-examination when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra was about accessing something outside normal anguish. She is unaware until the haunting manifests, and that transformation is emotionally raw because it is so unshielded.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—ensuring users from coast to coast can be part of this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original clip, which has collected over a viral response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, making the film to global fright lovers.


Do not miss this cinematic exploration of dread. Face *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to see these fearful discoveries about the psyche.


For cast commentary, special features, and promotions via the production team, follow @YACMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit the film’s website.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 U.S. lineup weaves primeval-possession lore, indie terrors, plus legacy-brand quakes

Spanning grit-forward survival fare steeped in mythic scripture and including series comebacks as well as incisive indie visions, 2025 is tracking to be the richest paired with intentionally scheduled year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Top studios are anchoring the year with known properties, in parallel SVOD players stack the fall with debut heat paired with ancient terrors. On the independent axis, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is catching the carry from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are exacting, therefore 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige fear returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal Pictures kicks off the frame with a statement play: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Under director Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. set for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. From director Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, Warner’s slate delivers the closing chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the memorable motifs return: vintage toned fear, trauma as narrative engine, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time the stakes climb, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, stretches the animatronic parade, bridging teens and legacy players. It books December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Plays: Modest spend, serious shock

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it looks like a certain fall stream.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable with Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of 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 calculated bet. No overinflated mythology. No continuity burden. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, from Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The forthcoming 2026 chiller slate: installments, non-franchise titles, plus A hectic Calendar tailored for frights

Dek The new horror season loads in short order with a January bottleneck, before it flows through midyear, and pushing into the year-end corridor, combining brand equity, untold stories, and data-minded offsets. Distributors with platforms are committing to smart costs, box-office-first windows, and shareable marketing that elevate the slate’s entries into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The field has solidified as the consistent tool in studio calendars, a space that can accelerate when it connects and still limit the drag when it fails to connect. After 2023 reminded studio brass that low-to-mid budget genre plays can own the national conversation, the following year kept the drumbeat going with high-profile filmmaker pieces and word-of-mouth wins. The trend carried into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and filmmaker-prestige bets confirmed there is appetite for different modes, from series extensions to director-led originals that travel well. The end result for the 2026 slate is a lineup that appears tightly organized across the field, with strategic blocks, a blend of brand names and novel angles, and a renewed eye on big-screen windows that power the aftermarket on paid VOD and digital services.

Schedulers say the space now operates like a fill-in ace on the schedule. The genre can roll out on most weekends, generate a simple premise for teasers and UGC-friendly snippets, and outperform with demo groups that line up on Thursday previews and maintain momentum through the second weekend if the movie delivers. Coming out of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 mapping signals trust in that approach. The year rolls out with a crowded January schedule, then leans on spring and early summer for alternate plays, while reserving space for a fall run that flows toward holiday-adjacent weekends and afterwards. The layout also features the continuing integration of specialty arms and SVOD players that can grow from platform, create conversation, and grow at the precise moment.

A second macro trend is series management across connected story worlds and classic IP. Major shops are not just greenlighting another return. They are shaping as ongoing narrative with a sense of event, whether that is a brandmark that indicates a new tone or a casting pivot that binds a next entry to a original cycle. At the simultaneously, the directors behind the top original plays are prioritizing in-camera technique, physical gags and vivid settings. That pairing produces the 2026 slate a strong blend of recognition and surprise, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount defines the early cadence with two headline releases that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the core, framing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative stance signals a fan-service aware campaign without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Plan for a rollout stacked with brand visuals, first-look character reveals, and a trailer cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt mainstream recognition through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever tops the conversation that spring.

Universal has three discrete entries. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is straightforward, tragic, and logline-clear: a grieving man implements an machine companion that evolves into a dangerous lover. The date nudges it to the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate off-kilter promo beats and bite-size content that hybridizes affection and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a official title to become an teaser payoff closer to the teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele projects are presented as signature events, with a opaque teaser and a follow-up trailer set that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The pre-Halloween slot gives Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has made clear that a visceral, prosthetic-heavy mix can feel big on a lean spend. Look for a blood-soaked summer horror surge that maximizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio mounts two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, sustaining a dependable supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is calling a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both fans and novices. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build artifacts around universe detail, and creature design, elements that can drive IMAX and PLF uptake and community activity.

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 Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and textual fidelity, this time set against lycan legends. The label has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is supportive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Digital strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases land on copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that elevates both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up spikes in the back half. Prime Video will mix outside acquisitions with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog discovery, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and featured rows to maximize the tail on overall cume. Netflix keeps optionality about in-house releases and festival deals, finalizing horror entries near their drops and staging as events launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a one-two of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a per-project basis. The platform has signaled readiness to secure select projects with established auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for monthly activity when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 corridor with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is clear: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated 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 flagged a big-screen first plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the September weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has paid off for craft-driven horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using precision theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their audience.

Legacy titles versus originals

By share, the 2026 slate skews toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The question, as ever, is viewer burnout. The workable fix is to brand each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is leading with character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-accented approach from a fresh helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries 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, centers Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the packaging is familiar enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and early previews.

Rolling three-year comps outline the approach. In 2023, a cinema-first model that observed windows did not foreclose a day-and-date experiment from delivering when the brand was powerful. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in premium formats. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reframe POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot in tandem, allows marketing to bridge entries through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

Technique and craft currents

The filmmaking conversations behind this slate hint at a continued shift toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights mood and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in feature stories and craft features before rolling out a teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and earns shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a self-aware reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature execution and sets, which match well with booth activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel key. Look for trailers that spotlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that benefit on big speakers.

How the year maps out

January is busy. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid headline IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tone spread makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Pre-summer months prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Back half into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a early fall window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a opaque tease strategy and limited disclosures that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner evolves into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography 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 ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 goes 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 production with U.S. distribution. 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 prickly boss fight to survive on a lonely island as the hierarchy upends and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: horror Done. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting chiller that twists the horror of a child’s inconsistent read. Rating: pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that targets in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime buzz. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a another family snared by older hauntings. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A new start designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-first horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: to be announced. Production: active. 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-specific language and bone-deep menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 and why now

Three grounded forces inform this lineup. First, production that eased or re-slotted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and compressed 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming placements. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, clearing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play 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 icy, 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 build month to month, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome 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 credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, sound field, 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is name recognition where it counts, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, protect the mystery, and let the chills sell the seats.