Ancient Darkness returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across top digital platforms

One blood-curdling supernatural thriller from literary architect / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an primordial horror when unknowns become subjects in a hellish struggle. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing narrative of endurance and primordial malevolence that will reconstruct the horror genre this cool-weather season. Realized by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and moody tale follows five people who suddenly rise sealed in a wooded dwelling under the aggressive will of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a time-worn biblical force. Arm yourself to be ensnared by a visual experience that unites visceral dread with biblical origins, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a enduring narrative in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reimagined when the entities no longer descend from beyond, but rather deep within. This mirrors the darkest facet of the victims. The result is a harrowing cognitive warzone where the events becomes a brutal conflict between righteousness and malevolence.


In a wilderness-stricken wilderness, five characters find themselves caught under the dark dominion and possession of a mysterious spirit. As the youths becomes incapacitated to evade her power, left alone and hunted by terrors impossible to understand, they are thrust to acknowledge their worst nightmares while the doomsday meter unceasingly ticks toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear deepens and partnerships implode, driving each survivor to contemplate their essence and the foundation of free will itself. The threat intensify with every heartbeat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that combines supernatural terror with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to dive into pure dread, an evil beyond recorded history, embedding itself in inner turmoil, and testing a force that forces self-examination when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra called for internalizing something beneath mortal despair. She is ignorant until the spirit seizes her, and that metamorphosis is shocking because it is so close.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—delivering users across the world can be part of this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original clip, which has garnered over a viral response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, exporting the fear to thrill-seekers globally.


Join this soul-jarring spiral into evil. Enter *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to confront these ghostly lessons about the human condition.


For sneak peeks, making-of footage, and social posts from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across fan hubs and visit our horror hub.





American horror’s inflection point: the 2025 season American release plan fuses archetypal-possession themes, microbudget gut-punches, stacked beside franchise surges

Ranging from grit-forward survival fare infused with old testament echoes as well as returning series alongside pointed art-house angles, 2025 is lining up as the genre’s most multifaceted paired with intentionally scheduled year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio powerhouses lock in tentpoles with known properties, in parallel streamers pack the fall with emerging auteurs paired with ancient terrors. At the same time, independent banners is catching the afterglow of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are targeted, hence 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

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

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal Pictures sets the tone with a big gambit: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a modern-day environment. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. set for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. Pictures launches the swan song from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The next entry deepens the tale, stretches the animatronic parade, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Digital Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a sealed box body horror arc pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it looks like a certain fall stream.

In the mix sits Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative with Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No franchise baggage. 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 Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

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. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

What to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps 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 comes roaring back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Big screen is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

What’s Next: Fall stack and winter swing card

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

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

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 new chiller slate: follow-ups, original films, and also A loaded Calendar geared toward jolts

Dek: The arriving scare year crams up front with a January pile-up, subsequently stretches through summer, and running into the holiday frame, balancing marquee clout, fresh ideas, and shrewd counterplay. Studios and platforms are embracing mid-range economics, exclusive theatrical windows first, and buzz-forward plans that transform these pictures into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has grown into the consistent release in annual schedules, a space that can expand when it performs and still mitigate the exposure when it underperforms. After the 2023 year reminded strategy teams that efficiently budgeted shockers can dominate cultural conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and filmmaker-prestige bets demonstrated there is demand for varied styles, from brand follow-ups to original features that scale internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a schedule that presents tight coordination across the field, with clear date clusters, a mix of familiar brands and new concepts, and a recommitted attention on exclusive windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital and home streaming.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now functions as a schedule utility on the release plan. Horror can kick off on most weekends, provide a sharp concept for promo reels and shorts, and outperform with ticket buyers that turn out on first-look nights and sustain through the sophomore frame if the picture pays off. Emerging from a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 plan shows assurance in that logic. The slate rolls out with a stacked January schedule, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while making space for a late-year stretch that stretches into All Hallows period and beyond. The calendar also illustrates the continuing integration of specialized imprints and home platforms that can stage a platform run, generate chatter, and roll out at the proper time.

A second macro trend is IP stewardship across brand ecosystems and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just pushing another next film. They are looking to package continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a tonal shift or a cast configuration that anchors a latest entry to a heyday. At the parallel to that, the creative teams behind the most anticipated originals are embracing tactile craft, practical effects and vivid imp source settings. That alloy affords 2026 a smart balance of comfort and newness, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two headline projects that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the spine, angling it as both a succession moment and a DNA-forward character-first story. Production is active in Atlanta, and the artistic posture points to a classic-referencing treatment without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive anchored in brand visuals, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm landing toward late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will go after large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format fitting quick shifts to whatever shapes the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three clear pushes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, somber, and concept-forward: a grieving man brings home an digital partner that grows into a lethal partner. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on viral uncanny stunts and quick hits that hybridizes affection and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title reveal to become an event moment closer to the early tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele projects are marketed as auteur events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The pre-Halloween slot affords Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a raw, on-set effects led mix can feel high-value on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror jolt that emphasizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, extending a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is describing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both franchise faithful and fresh viewers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature builds, elements that can drive premium screens and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by obsessive craft and period speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The specialty arm has already set the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s slate head to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a cadence that maximizes both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with international acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library engagement, using timely promos, spooky hubs, and handpicked rows to prolong the run on the horror cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival pickups, dating horror entries near their drops and staging as events premieres with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of precision releases and prompt platform moves that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has signaled readiness to invest in select projects with acclaimed directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 arc with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is clear: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, modernized for modern sonics and picture. 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 theatrical-first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the October weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, managing the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas window to move out. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-driven genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception drives. Keep an eye on 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 jointly, using limited runs to prime evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By weight, 2026 skews toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap name recognition. The question, Check This Out as ever, is brand wear. The workable fix is to market each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a ascendant talent. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects keep oxygen in the system. 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 survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the assembly is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and advance-audience nights.

Recent-year comps make sense of the approach. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that maintained windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from delivering when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel new when they alter lens and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot back-to-back, lets marketing to link the films through character web and themes and to keep assets in-market without hiatuses.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind 2026 horror point to a continued bias toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that highlights creep and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and department features before rolling out a mood teaser that withholds plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster work and world-building, which play well in convention floor stunts and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that spotlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that land in premium houses.

Calendar cadence

January is packed. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid marquee brands. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the tonal variety lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Winter into spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil follows September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a minimalist tease strategy and limited information drops that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s algorithmic partner escalates into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

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 stumble upon a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 difficult boss work to survive on a isolated island as the chain of command upends and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

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 chill, based on Cronin’s physical craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting scenario that mediates the fear via a child’s unreliable point of view. Rating: TBA. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes current genre trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 international twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a unlucky family caught in old terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBA. Production: moving forward. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 era-accurate language and bone-deep menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces frame this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-slotted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming launches. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on social-ready stingers from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, making room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will compete across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where 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 quiet breakout 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout 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 appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound field, and framing 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, Lined Up To Scare

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is franchise muscle where it helps, 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shocks sell the seats.