Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes mythic darkness, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, landing October 2025 on premium platforms

This bone-chilling metaphysical suspense story from screenwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an primordial entity when strangers become instruments in a fiendish game. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving story of overcoming and age-old darkness that will reshape the horror genre this scare season. Crafted by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and shadowy story follows five figures who snap to isolated in a wooded house under the dark control of Kyra, a tormented girl overtaken by a prehistoric biblical force. Steel yourself to be drawn in by a theatrical spectacle that fuses visceral dread with arcane tradition, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a classic pillar in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is radically shifted when the spirits no longer arise from external sources, but rather through their own souls. This marks the most sinister corner of the cast. The result is a riveting emotional conflict where the story becomes a intense battle between virtue and vice.


In a desolate forest, five young people find themselves marooned under the sinister effect and inhabitation of a uncanny figure. As the protagonists becomes unable to oppose her manipulation, cut off and tormented by terrors unimaginable, they are confronted to confront their core terrors while the moments harrowingly runs out toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia mounts and bonds shatter, compelling each individual to doubt their values and the integrity of liberty itself. The hazard grow with every beat, delivering a fear-soaked story that harmonizes spiritual fright with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to channel core terror, an evil rooted in antiquity, emerging via emotional vulnerability, and wrestling with a darkness that strips down our being when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra required summoning something outside normal anguish. She is unseeing until the evil takes hold, and that turn is terrifying because it is so private.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring households no matter where they are can enjoy this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first preview, which has seen over 100,000 views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to a worldwide audience.


Join this visceral trip into the unknown. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to dive into these nightmarish insights about inner darkness.


For behind-the-scenes access, making-of footage, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YACFilm across your socials and visit the movie’s homepage.





Horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 cycle stateside slate integrates primeval-possession lore, underground frights, in parallel with legacy-brand quakes

Kicking off with last-stand terror grounded in scriptural legend and stretching into installment follow-ups alongside keen independent perspectives, 2025 looks like the most textured along with intentionally scheduled year since the mid-2010s.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio powerhouses lay down anchors with familiar IP, concurrently streaming platforms crowd the fall with debut heat as well as legend-coded dread. Across the art-house lane, festival-forward creators is carried on the echoes from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween stays the prime week, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and now, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, so 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: The Return of Prestige Fear

The top end is active. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s schedule starts the year with a big gambit: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a clear present-tense world. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. targeting mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Guided by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. Pictures sets loose the finale within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, plus otherworld rules that chill. The stakes escalate here, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It hits in December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Plays: Slim budgets, major punch

While the big screen favors titles you know, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror chamber piece pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

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, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to 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. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 reads as sharp positioning. No overstuffed canon. No continuity burden. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Long Running Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, with Francis Lawrence directing, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror reemerges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The 2026 scare slate: entries, original films, paired with A Crowded Calendar Built For chills

Dek: The upcoming horror slate crowds from day one with a January glut, thereafter carries through June and July, and well into the holiday frame, fusing brand heft, novel approaches, and shrewd counterprogramming. Studios and streamers are relying on tight budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and buzz-forward plans that transform genre titles into water-cooler talk.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This space has solidified as the bankable move in studio lineups, a segment that can break out when it catches and still hedge the floor when it misses. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for leaders that disciplined-budget entries can dominate pop culture, 2024 held pace with buzzy auteur projects and slow-burn breakouts. The carry flowed into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and elevated films highlighted there is demand for a variety of tones, from returning installments to standalone ideas that translate worldwide. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a schedule that appears tightly organized across the market, with obvious clusters, a balance of legacy names and new concepts, and a refocused focus on release windows that drive downstream revenue on premium on-demand and platforms.

Executives say the category now acts as a fill-in ace on the slate. Horror can arrive on many corridors, furnish a tight logline for spots and TikTok spots, and lead with fans that come out on Thursday previews and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the release satisfies. In the wake of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 mapping demonstrates assurance in that equation. The year launches with a thick January corridor, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterweight, while keeping space for a September to October window that reaches into holiday-adjacent weekends and past Halloween. The calendar also includes the greater integration of indie distributors and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and broaden at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is brand curation across ongoing universes and classic IP. The companies are not just turning out another continuation. They are shaping as brand continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a casting choice that binds a new installment to a classic era. At the concurrently, the directors behind the marquee originals are favoring tactile craft, on-set effects and specific settings. That mix affords the 2026 slate a healthy mix of recognition and newness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount plants an early flag with two prominent releases that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, angling it as both a legacy handover and a rootsy character-centered film. Production is active in Atlanta, and the narrative stance signals a memory-charged framework without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Watch for a push stacked with legacy iconography, initial cast looks, and a staggered trailer plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will stress. As a summer contrast play, this one will chase broad awareness through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick switches to whatever dominates the social talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct projects. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is crisp, loss-driven, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man brings home an synthetic partner that turns into a dangerous lover. The date nudges it to the front of a busy month, with marketing at Universal likely to reprise uncanny live moments and short-cut promos that mixes romance and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be 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 creates space for a public title to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s releases are framed as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second trailer wave that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot affords Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered style can feel prestige on a tight budget. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror surge that centers international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is billing as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 mission to serve both core fans and newcomers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around setting detail, and creature builds, elements that can fuel deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror built on immersive craft and period speech, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is supportive.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform tactics for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate head to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a ladder that expands both debut momentum and subscriber lifts in the later phase. Prime Video combines licensed titles with world buys and limited cinema engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library engagement, using featured rows, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on aggregate take. Netflix stays opportunistic about internal projects and festival additions, confirming horror entries toward the drop and eventizing drops with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a dual-phase of focused cinema runs and short jumps to platform that turns chatter to conversion. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a curated basis. The platform has signaled readiness to acquire select projects with top-tier auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 sequence with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is direct: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, modernized for modern mix and image. 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 signaled a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn stretch.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has proved effective for arthouse horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception supports. Look for 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 together, using limited theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their paid base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By share, the 2026 slate bends toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is viewer burnout. The go-to fix is to position each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is bringing forward character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French sensibility from a hot helmer. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the package is known enough to accelerate early sales and early previews.

The last three-year set contextualize the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive window model that honored streaming windows did not block a day-date move from delivering when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror hit big in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, lets marketing to cross-link entries through character and theme and to maintain a flow of assets without doldrums.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft conversations behind this slate indicate a continued lean toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that foregrounds unease and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft journalism and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that leans on mood over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta-horror reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature craft and set design, which work nicely for fan-con activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel irresistible. Look for trailers that emphasize precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that sing on PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is stacked. 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 foggy reset amid macro-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the spread of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth holds.

Pre-summer months load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reintroduces have a peek at these guys a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Shoulder season into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s AI companion grows into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 severe boss claw to survive on a cut-off island as the chain of command shifts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to terror, driven by Cronin’s physical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 in-home haunting tale that channels the fear through a youngster’s shifting internal vantage. Rating: pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed and marquee-led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that pokes at hot-button genre motifs and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. 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 surges, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further extends again, with a another family bound to past horrors. Rating: pending. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: pending. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 language and elemental fear. Rating: not yet rated. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: holiday prestige play useful reference with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why this year, why now

Three operational forces frame this lineup. First, production that stalled or re-slotted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming drops. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine turnkey scare beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, making room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will line up across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

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

The sleeper-hit 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, acoustics, 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 Shapes Up Strong

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is franchise muscle where it helps, filmmaker 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, guard the secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.