Ancient Malevolence surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled shocker, launching October 2025 on major streaming services

One frightening spiritual scare-fest from author / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an primeval dread when foreigners become tokens in a hellish contest. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish saga of survival and primordial malevolence that will redefine scare flicks this autumn. Helmed by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and cinematic motion picture follows five figures who regain consciousness trapped in a cut-off lodge under the dark influence of Kyra, a mysterious girl dominated by a ancient Old Testament spirit. Get ready to be drawn in by a motion picture ride that weaves together bone-deep fear with mythic lore, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a historical trope in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is inverted when the entities no longer arise beyond the self, but rather inside them. This marks the malevolent part of the victims. The result is a psychologically brutal internal warfare where the intensity becomes a unforgiving clash between innocence and sin.


In a desolate natural abyss, five souls find themselves caught under the dark presence and curse of a mysterious entity. As the youths becomes incapacitated to oppose her influence, severed and followed by spirits impossible to understand, they are made to stand before their emotional phantoms while the clock coldly strikes toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust intensifies and bonds dissolve, compelling each soul to challenge their identity and the foundation of independent thought itself. The consequences accelerate with every fleeting time, delivering a fear-soaked story that weaves together mystical fear with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to draw upon core terror, an curse that existed before mankind, filtering through emotional fractures, and wrestling with a darkness that redefines identity when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra involved tapping into something outside normal anguish. She is blind until the entity awakens, and that metamorphosis is harrowing because it is so visceral.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing households around the globe can engage with this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its release of trailer #1, which has gathered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, delivering the story to viewers around the world.


Be sure to catch this gripping ride through nightmares. Confront *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to explore these haunting secrets about free will.


For featurettes, director cuts, and updates from the cast and crew, follow @YACMovie across entertainment pages and visit our horror hub.





Today’s horror watershed moment: 2025 for genre fans U.S. calendar melds myth-forward possession, independent shockers, stacked beside franchise surges

Moving from survivor-centric dread suffused with biblical myth and including brand-name continuations as well as pointed art-house angles, 2025 is tracking to be the richest paired with intentionally scheduled year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. the big studios are anchoring the year with established lines, concurrently streamers saturate the fall with unboxed visions and old-world menace. Meanwhile, indie storytellers is riding the afterglow from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and now, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are calculated, therefore 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium genre swings back

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

Universal’s schedule opens the year with a headline swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. set for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Under Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer eases, Warner’s slate launches the swan song within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson returns, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: period tinged dread, trauma in the foreground, with ghostly inner logic. This time the stakes climb, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The follow up digs further into canon, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, bridging teens and legacy players. It arrives in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold case horror anthology stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a close quarters body horror study starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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 overstuffed canon. No franchise baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Heritage Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

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, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

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

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

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 including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

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 assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The approaching Horror Year Ahead: brand plays, original films, as well as A jammed Calendar calibrated for Scares

Dek The emerging terror cycle crowds right away with a January wave, after that spreads through midyear, and pushing into the year-end corridor, weaving franchise firepower, novel approaches, and tactical alternatives. Studio marketers and platforms are leaning into lean spends, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that position genre releases into national conversation.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has become the most reliable release in programming grids, a corner that can accelerate when it lands and still protect the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured 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 energy rolled into 2025, where revived properties and arthouse crossovers signaled there is capacity for many shades, from brand follow-ups to original features that travel well. The takeaway for 2026 is a grid that shows rare alignment across studios, with purposeful groupings, a combination of household franchises and new pitches, and a renewed attention on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now operates like a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can debut on most weekends, offer a quick sell for ad units and platform-native cuts, and punch above weight with audiences that lean in on opening previews and hold through the subsequent weekend if the release delivers. In the wake of a production delay era, the 2026 setup telegraphs certainty in that model. The calendar rolls out with a front-loaded January stretch, then targets spring into early summer for alternate plays, while holding room for a late-year stretch that carries into spooky season and into November. The calendar also includes the greater integration of indie distributors and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, grow buzz, and broaden at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is brand curation across ongoing universes and established properties. Major shops are not just turning out another sequel. They are setting up lore continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that signals a new vibe or a lead change that links a incoming chapter to a early run. At the same time, the helmers behind the marquee originals are championing hands-on technique, makeup and prosthetics and specific settings. That blend affords the 2026 slate a lively combination of brand comfort and novelty, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

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

Paramount marks the early tempo with two headline entries 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 lead, marketing it as both a lineage transfer and a return-to-roots character-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture points to a legacy-leaning framework without replaying the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Anticipate a campaign centered on brand visuals, intro reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical 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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will double down 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 horror talk that spring.

Universal has three defined releases. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is tight, tragic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an virtual partner that grows into a harmful mate. The date puts it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s team likely to renew off-kilter promo beats and snackable content that melds attachment and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read 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 creates space for a final title to become an teaser payoff closer to the teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele titles are framed as director events, with a teaser that holds back and a second beat that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The spooky-season slot gives the studio room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage 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 steers, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has shown that a blood-soaked, hands-on effects aesthetic can feel cinematic on a tight budget. Look for a gore-forward summer horror charge that spotlights offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is positioning as a reimagined restart 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 mission to serve both core fans and newcomers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around mythos, and creature work, elements that can lift large-format demand and fan-culture participation.

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 maintains Eggers’ run of period horror centered on obsessive craft and historical speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform plans for 2026 run on well-known grooves. The studio’s horror films head to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a sequence that expands both first-week urgency and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video stitches together acquired titles with cross-border buys and limited cinema engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library pulls, using timely promos, Halloween hubs, and programmed rows to prolong the run on overall cume. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix originals and festival pickups, finalizing horror entries with shorter lead times and staging as events premieres with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a staged of targeted theatrical exposure and rapid platforming that translates talk to trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror click to read more on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to buy select projects with name filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is putting together 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 pitch is straightforward: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, modernized for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday dates to widen. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-first horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception allows. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using select theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Balance of brands and originals

By weight, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on legacy awareness. The challenge, as ever, is brand wear. The preferred tactic is to frame each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is elevating relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-flavored turn from a rising filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the deal build is recognizable enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and early previews.

Recent comps illuminate the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept clean windows did not prevent a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror popped in premium large format. 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 unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, enables marketing to tie installments through relationships and themes and to continue assets in field without pause points.

Craft and creative trends

The filmmaking conversations behind 2026 horror signal a continued bias toward 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 hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that emphasizes unease and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-correct language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a tone piece that withholds plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for red-band excess, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta inflection that centers its original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature design and production design, which match well with convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that explode in larger rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week navigate to this website later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid marquee brands. The month caps 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 legit, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Late winter and spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited plot reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s virtual companion escalates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

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 fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a mutable Check This Out reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 abrasive boss fight to survive on a cut-off island as the pecking order turns and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: marquee survival piece 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 renewed vision that returns the monster to dread, built on Cronin’s material craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting premise that manipulates the chill of a child’s unreliable senses. Rating: to be announced. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A genre lampoon that teases current genre trends and true crime fixations. Rating: TBD. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 ignites, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new household linked to older hauntings. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A clean reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survivalist horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBA. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBA. Production: active. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 time-true diction and primordial menace. Rating: TBD. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026, why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces shape this lineup. First, production that eased or recalendared in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, 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, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will compete across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

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

The 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, 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 sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, aural design, and cinematography 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 Looks Exciting

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand equity where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.