Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on major streaming services

This chilling spectral suspense story from scriptwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an timeless fear when strangers become instruments in a hellish conflict. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing tale of perseverance and ancient evil that will reshape fear-driven cinema this harvest season. Produced by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and shadowy story follows five figures who are stirred isolated in a off-grid structure under the malevolent power of Kyra, a troubled woman consumed by a ancient sacred-era entity. Ready yourself to be captivated by a motion picture journey that merges bone-deep fear with ancestral stories, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a well-established foundation in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is reimagined when the malevolences no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather inside them. This mirrors the malevolent aspect of all involved. The result is a riveting moral showdown where the drama becomes a merciless struggle between heaven and hell.


In a isolated landscape, five characters find themselves imprisoned under the unholy control and possession of a elusive person. As the ensemble becomes submissive to deny her influence, stranded and stalked by unknowns impossible to understand, they are driven to deal with their core terrors while the final hour coldly winds toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear amplifies and alliances break, urging each survivor to question their true nature and the idea of volition itself. The hazard accelerate with every short lapse, delivering a frightening tale that combines ghostly evil with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dig into primal fear, an curse that predates humanity, working through emotional fractures, and highlighting a entity that erodes the self when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra meant evoking something more primal than sorrow. She is oblivious until the entity awakens, and that change is bone-chilling because it is so close.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for horror fans beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering viewers in all regions can get immersed in this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original promo, which has seen over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, delivering the story to fans of fear everywhere.


Make sure to see this gripping descent into darkness. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to witness these chilling revelations about existence.


For director insights, filmmaker commentary, and updates from the story's source, follow @YACFilm across entertainment pages and visit the official digital haunt.





Horror’s sea change: the year 2025 U.S. rollouts weaves legend-infused possession, underground frights, alongside legacy-brand quakes

Spanning endurance-driven terror grounded in ancient scripture all the way to IP renewals as well as acutely observed indies, 2025 looks like the most stratified combined with tactically planned year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. leading studios set cornerstones by way of signature titles, at the same time subscription platforms crowd the fall with debut heat plus scriptural shivers. At the same time, independent banners is riding the momentum from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Since Halloween is the prized date, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, however this time, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are surgical, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: High-craft horror returns

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

Universal’s slate opens the year with a risk-forward move: a reimagined Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Led by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. landing in mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

At summer’s close, Warner’s slate sets loose the finale of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson is back, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retro dread, trauma foregrounded, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, builds out the animatronic fear crew, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Plays: No Budget, No Problem

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable starring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by 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 threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Long Running Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The approaching terror release year: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, as well as A busy Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek The arriving horror season lines up from the jump with a January pile-up, subsequently stretches through the warm months, and deep into the winter holidays, fusing name recognition, untold stories, and smart offsets. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on tight budgets, theatrical leads, and social-fueled campaigns that position genre releases into national conversation.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has become the predictable counterweight in programming grids, a corner that can accelerate when it lands and still protect the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 signaled to top brass that mid-range horror vehicles can steer pop culture, the following year carried the beat with director-led heat and sleeper breakouts. The upswing rolled into 2025, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is capacity for a spectrum, from returning installments to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a roster that is strikingly coherent across the market, with intentional bunching, a pairing of known properties and fresh ideas, and a revived emphasis on theater exclusivity that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and home streaming.

Studio leaders note the genre now operates like a versatile piece on the release plan. The genre can kick off on open real estate, yield a quick sell for trailers and TikTok spots, and outperform with audiences that show up on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the offering satisfies. After a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 cadence signals confidence in that logic. The year rolls out with a busy January block, then targets spring into early summer for contrast, while reserving space for a fall cadence that carries into the Halloween corridor and into the next week. The arrangement also features the continuing integration of boutique distributors and streaming partners that can stage a platform run, ignite recommendations, and expand at the precise moment.

A notable top-line trend is IP stewardship across ongoing universes and veteran brands. Studios are not just turning out another installment. They are seeking to position brand continuity with a occasion, whether that is a typeface approach that conveys a reframed mood or a star attachment that threads a next entry to a first wave. At the in tandem, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are leaning into tactile craft, real effects and site-specific worlds. That mix gives 2026 a robust balance of brand comfort and freshness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount plants an early flag with two spotlight plays that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the lead, positioning the film as both a legacy handover and a classic-mode character study. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach signals a heritage-honoring angle without replaying the last two entries’ family thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive stacked with brand visuals, first-look character reveals, and a trailer cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will seek wide appeal through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format inviting quick updates to whatever rules genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is simple, somber, and logline-clear: a grieving man implements an AI companion that turns into a harmful mate. The date places it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the Universal machine likely to iterate on uncanny-valley stunts and bite-size content that fuses longing and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a branding reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. The filmmaker’s films are set up as signature events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second beat that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The pre-Halloween slot affords Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has established that a visceral, makeup-driven execution can feel elevated on a middle budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror blast that emphasizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is framing 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 directive to serve both franchise faithful and novices. The fall slot offers Sony space to build assets around world-building, and creature design, elements that can drive premium format interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by historical precision and dialect, this time focused on werewolf legend. The distributor has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is favorable.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a cadence that fortifies both launch urgency and platform bumps in the after-window. Prime Video will mix library titles with world buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using timely promos, spooky hubs, and handpicked rows to extend momentum on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival deals, confirming horror entries near their drops and elevating as drops launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a paired of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that translates talk to trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to acquire select projects with name filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for sustained usage when the genre conversation spikes.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate with two brand extensions. 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, refined for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday corridor to open out. That positioning has paid off for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception allows. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using boutique theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Brands and originals

By number, 2026 skews toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate brand equity. The risk, as ever, is fatigue. The near-term solution is to pitch each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is spotlighting character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the packaging is anchored enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

The last three-year set clarify the approach. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that honored streaming windows did not obstruct a simultaneous release test from performing when the brand was powerful. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in premium formats. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel new when they rotate perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues 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 produced back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to interlace chapters through character and theme and to keep materials circulating without lulls.

Production craft signals

The production chatter behind the 2026 entries telegraph a continued preference for real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that spotlights aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and era-correct language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft spotlights before rolling out a first look that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta recalibration that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will live or die on monster work and world-building, which favor convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel key. Look for trailers that elevate click to read more pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid headline IP. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tonal variety opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. 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 rolled through premiums.

Shoulder season into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a minimalist tease strategy and limited asset reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can play the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card spend.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s intelligent companion mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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: Filmed in tandem 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 ventures back to a navigate to this website fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss scramble to survive on a cut-off island as the power balance reverses and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

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 contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fright, grounded in Cronin’s in-camera craft and slow-bloom 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 residential haunting piece that manipulates the terror of a child’s fragile senses. Rating: forthcoming. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that pokes at in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fascinations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: shoot planned 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 detonates, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further reopens, with a different family entangled with ancient dread. Rating: undetermined. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBA. Production: ongoing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and primal menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces organize this lineup. First, production that stalled or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine turnkey scare beats from test screenings, metered scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Calendar math also matters. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the ideal band. 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 have a peek here tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where midrange-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 dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to 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 earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, soundcraft, 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand gravity where needed, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the frights sell the seats.