Primordial Terror surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

An spine-tingling spectral suspense film from creator / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an long-buried malevolence when unfamiliar people become puppets in a devilish ritual. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching narrative of resistance and mythic evil that will remodel terror storytelling this season. Brought to life by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and claustrophobic feature follows five figures who arise trapped in a wooded structure under the aggressive sway of Kyra, a female lead possessed by a legendary sacred-era entity. Anticipate to be shaken by a screen-based spectacle that combines intense horror with mythic lore, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a iconic pillar in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is inverted when the entities no longer form from elsewhere, but rather deep within. This suggests the most hidden part of the group. The result is a psychologically brutal spiritual tug-of-war where the suspense becomes a relentless contest between moral forces.


In a bleak wilderness, five youths find themselves trapped under the possessive effect and control of a mysterious female figure. As the group becomes incapacitated to evade her manipulation, marooned and attacked by unknowns beyond comprehension, they are confronted to wrestle with their soulful dreads while the moments relentlessly winds toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension surges and alliances break, compelling each cast member to contemplate their being and the nature of liberty itself. The intensity intensify with every beat, delivering a scare-fueled ride that merges otherworldly suspense with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dive into primitive panic, an spirit older than civilization itself, operating within emotional vulnerability, and navigating a evil that threatens selfhood when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra needed manifesting something beneath mortal despair. She is insensitive until the possession kicks in, and that shift is harrowing because it is so unshielded.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for home viewing beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing fans in all regions can engage with this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its first preview, which has earned over 100K plays.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, spreading the horror to fans of fear everywhere.


Mark your calendar for this heart-stopping spiral into evil. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to dive into these haunting secrets about the psyche.


For sneak peeks, production insights, and alerts from inside the story, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across online outlets and visit the movie portal.





Horror’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 American release plan weaves biblical-possession ideas, indie terrors, stacked beside IP aftershocks

Moving from last-stand terror inspired by old testament echoes all the way to canon extensions paired with incisive indie visions, 2025 is coalescing into the genre’s most multifaceted together with tactically planned year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors lay down anchors with familiar IP, while platform operators crowd the fall with first-wave breakthroughs paired with legend-coded dread. At the same time, the art-house flank is surfing the tailwinds of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, distinctly in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are disciplined, which means 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the base, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s distribution arm lights the fuse with a big gambit: a refreshed Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, instead in a current-day frame. Steered by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. landing in mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Directed by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer fades, Warner’s schedule launches the swan song within its surest horror brand: 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. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson resumes command, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: throwback unease, trauma foregrounded, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This run ups the stakes, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, broadens the animatronic terror cast, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It books December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror duet fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale with Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored 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 dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No puffed out backstory. No continuity burden. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festivals as Springboards

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

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, under Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Dials to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror resurges
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Projection: Fall stack and winter swing card

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 have to fight for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The approaching fear calendar year ahead: returning titles, non-franchise titles, and also A busy Calendar calibrated for frights

Dek The incoming genre calendar lines up in short order with a January bottleneck, from there carries through peak season, and straight through the holiday frame, combining brand equity, inventive spins, and strategic counterplay. Studios with streamers are focusing on smart costs, cinema-first plans, and shareable marketing that elevate genre releases into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s status entering 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the predictable swing in studio lineups, a vertical that can spike when it catches and still buffer the exposure when it stumbles. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that efficiently budgeted entries can steer the national conversation, 2024 extended the rally with filmmaker-forward plays and under-the-radar smashes. The momentum pushed into 2025, where reawakened brands and elevated films highlighted there is a market for several lanes, from continued chapters to director-led originals that perform internationally. The end result for 2026 is a calendar that feels more orchestrated than usual across the industry, with defined corridors, a spread of legacy names and fresh ideas, and a re-energized strategy on exhibition windows that fuel later windows on premium digital and SVOD.

Buyers contend the category now works like a wildcard on the rollout map. Horror can roll out on numerous frames, deliver a simple premise for creative and platform-native cuts, and lead with audiences that respond on Thursday nights and hold through the second frame if the movie satisfies. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 configuration telegraphs belief in that approach. The slate starts with a crowded January lineup, then primes spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while carving room for a autumn stretch that connects to spooky season and beyond. The map also reflects the expanded integration of boutique distributors and home platforms that can stage a platform run, grow buzz, and scale up at the strategic time.

An added macro current is IP stewardship across interlocking continuities and storied titles. Studios are not just mounting another next film. They are shaping as brand continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a brandmark that broadcasts a new vibe or a star attachment that connects a new entry to a heyday. At the alongside this, the directors behind the most watched originals are celebrating on-set craft, makeup and prosthetics and concrete locations. That pairing offers the 2026 slate a healthy mix of known notes and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount opens strong with two marquee moves that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the center, marketing it as both a lineage transfer and a back-to-basics character-first story. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach conveys a memory-charged strategy without rehashing the last two entries’ sibling arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive driven by signature symbols, character spotlights, and a two-beat trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will stress. As a summer relief option, this one will pursue four-quadrant chatter through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format supporting quick reframes to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three discrete bets. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is crisp, tragic, and big-hook: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that mutates into a lethal partner. The date locates it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to replay eerie street stunts and short-cut promos that mixes companionship and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under code names 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 official title to become an marketing beat closer to the teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s work are sold as director events, with a concept-forward tease and a second wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The pre-Halloween slot opens a lane to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a raw, hands-on effects execution can feel top-tier on a mid-range budget. Expect a gore-forward summer horror blast that centers foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a dependable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is billing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both longtime followers and fresh viewers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build assets around environmental design, and monster design, elements that can increase large-format demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in historical precision and dialect, this time set against lycan legends. Focus’s team has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is supportive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a structure that maximizes both week-one demand and sign-up spikes in the later phase. Prime Video pairs licensed titles with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix stays nimble about first-party entries and festival grabs, confirming horror entries toward the drop and positioning as event drops drops with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a laddered of tailored theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with accomplished filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a prestige 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 uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 lane with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, retooled for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the September weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday slot to broaden. That positioning has served the company well for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection useful reference is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using limited theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By volume, 2026 leans in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The watch-out, as ever, is overexposure. The go-to fix is to sell each entry as a new angle. Paramount is leading with character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is promising a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-accented approach from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is familiar enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and early previews.

Recent-year comps outline the logic. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that held distribution windows did not hamper a day-date move from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they shift POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends 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 thread films through personae and themes and to keep materials circulating without pause points.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft conversations behind these films suggest a continued shift toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that highlights creep and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a first look that elevates tone over story, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta reframe that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster work and world-building, which match well with convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that elevate disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that benefit on big speakers.

How the year maps out

January is busy. 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 larger brand plays. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the palette of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth holds.

Q1 into Q2 seed summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now nurtures 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit 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 rotated off PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a minimalist tease strategy and limited disclosures that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into weblink January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s virtual companion unfolds into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: gothic-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 struggle to survive on a desolate island as the pecking order reverses and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to dread, driven by Cronin’s in-camera craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. 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 domestic haunting scenario that pipes the unease through a little one’s uncertain point of view. Rating: TBA. Production: post-ready. 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 re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 flares, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further widens again, with a young family snared by older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-driven horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBA. Production: continuing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and elemental dread. Rating: undetermined. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026 and why now

Three operational forces define this lineup. First, production that paused or rearranged in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest turnkey scare beats from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

The slot calculus is real. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will coexist across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

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 wide PLF deployment 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 underdog chase 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first surprise 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, tight deployments, 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 surface detail, sound field, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is recognizable IP where it plays, distinct 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.