It’s Alive: All The New Monster Horror Movies We’re Looking Forward To In 2026

While del Toro's Frankenstein gave us a new take on Mary Shelley's iconic Creature, Maggie Gyllenhaal's sophomore feature The Bride! instead shifts focus instead to his companion, inspired by James Whale's 1935 classic Bride of Frankenstein. With Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Pénelope Cruz and Jake Gyllenhaal in tow, the 1930s-set monster movie sees Bale's Creature ask Dr. Euphronius (Bening) to create a partner for him. They give life to a murdered woman as “the Bride,” (Buckley) sparking romance, police interest and radical social change. Previously set for release in October of this year, The Bride! now dances into IMAX theaters on March 6, 2026.

Evil Dead Rise‘s Lee Cronin is making the jump from apartment blocks to ancient pyramids with The Mummy his upcoming take on the classic Universal Monster movie set to hit theaters on April 17, 2026. The Mummy comes as part of Cronin's deal with New Line Cinema, with horror giants Blumhouse and James Wan's Atomic Monster producing. Midsommar‘s Jack Reynor leads the cast, with Laia Costa (Devils), Veronica Falcón(The Forever Purge, Imaginary), May Calamawy (Moon Knight), and May Elghety (Grand Hotel) also starring. While plot details remain firmly under wraps (heh), Cronin has teased a little of what we can expect from the classic monster pic saying “This will be unlike any Mummy movie you ever laid eyeballs on before […] I’m digging deep into the earth to raise something very ancient and very frightening.” We don't doubt it for a second.

Having covered witches, vampires and mermaids, Robert Eggers next turns his eye to another of horror's most beloved creatures with Werwulf, a period piece set to release on December 25, 2026. Reteaming Eggers with his Nosferatu crew of Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and, of course, Willem Dafoe, Werwulf is a thirteen-century set horror involving – you guessed it – the legendary lycanthrope from folklore past. Further plot and character details remain under wraps, but we do know that Eggers is directing from a script he co-wrote with Icelandic poet and screenwriter Sjón, who he previously worked with on The Northman. Famed for his meticulous attention to detail (clock the Old English in Werwulf‘s title alone), we have no doubt Eggers is going to turn out another terrifying, atmospheric, historically-accurate horror for the ages, and we can't wait.

Given the gargantuan success of Takashi Yamazaki's Godzilla Minus One, which racked up $113 million worldwide on a mere $15 million budget and became the first Godzilla movie ever to win an Oscar, nobody was surprised when a sequel was announced. With an official title recently announced by Toho as Godzilla Minus Zero (or Godzilla -0.0), the kaiju epic will be dated in accordance with real time, presumably continuing to follow the story of failed kamikaze pilot Shikishima and his partner Noriko, who survived a Godzilla attack only to be left with a mysterious black rash that we're sure will come into play further in the sequel. No official date has yet to be announced, but Godzilla Minus Zero is reportedly looking at a late 2026 theatrical release, avoiding a direct clash with Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, which is hitting theaters in March 2027.

Watching the trailer for Luc Besson's Dracula: A Love Tale, one can't help but clock its many homages to Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 vampire epic Bram Stoker's Dracula. But a true classic never goes out of style, and if anyone can hold a candle to Gary Oldman's Count it's the hugely underrated Caleb Landry Jones (Antiviral, Get Out, Harvest), who stars in Dracula: A Love Tale alongside Christoph Waltz and Zoë Bleu, with the film featuring a score by genre legend Danny Elfman. We follow the titular vampire, a fifteenth-century prince who denounces God after the death of his wife. In doing so, he inherits the eternal curse of vampirism, and condemned to wander the centuries, he defies fate and death itself, guided by a single hope – to be reunited with his lost love. With Vertical recently acquiring North American rights for a theatrical release, look out for Dracula: A Love Tale in the first quarter of 2026, and if you're near London, you can catch the UK Premiere at Soho Horror Film Festival later this month.

Following a few years of less than stellar output, it looks like Silent Hill is back on its feet, with the recent Silent Hill 2 remake and Silent Hill f reinvigorating interest in Konami's iconic survival horror franchise. Hopes are high then for Return to Silent Hill, the third film adaptation based on the games, and Christophe Gans' long-awaited return following 2006's Silent Hill. As opposed to that film, which was a loose blend of the first and third games in the series, Return to Silent Hill is a direct adaptation of 2001's Silent Hill 2, meaning we'll definitely be getting our fair share of monsters including the Bubblehead Nurses, Lying Figures and, of course, a certain great knife-wielding, polyhedron-headed beast who we can't wait to see slice up the screen when Return to Silent Hill hits theaters on January 23, 2026 via Cineverse and Bloody Disgusting. Oh, and if you think Pyramid Head doesn't count as a monster, take that up with his legions of horny fangirls. We dare you.

While it doesn't yet have a release date, we're going to go ahead and start getting excited for Man Vs, the upcoming monster movie written by and starring scream king Kyle Gallner (Smile, Scream, Strange Darling). Set to be directed by Radio Silence co-founder Justin Martinez, Man Vs will follow a miner fighting off not only the elements of a harsh winter, but something much more sinister as well – a looming, ancient danger far more terrifying than anything he could imagine. Producers on Man Vs include the other members of Radio Silence, Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, as well as Roy Lee (Weapons), Steven Schneider (Late Night with the Devil), Chad Villella (Ready or Not), Stephen Braun (The Astronaut), Ross Putman (Dinner in America), Ben Ross (Watcher), and Josh Goldbloom (the V/H/S franchise), so a murderer's row of exciting genre names both behind and in front of the camera.

With Eden Lake‘s James Watkins in the director's chair, modern horror maestro Mike Flanagan on script duties, and DC's James Gunn promising a “complete horror film”, it's hard not to get excited for Clayface, which hits theaters on September 11, 2026 via Warner Bros. Based on the shapeshifting supervillain of the same name introduced back in Detective Comics #40 back in 1940, Clayface stars Tom Rhys Harries (The Gentlemen) in the titular role, and follows a B-movie actor who injects himself with a substance to keep himself relevant, only to find out that he can reshape his face and form, becoming a walking piece of clay. Expect body horror galore with a hefty helping of Flanagan's signature existential twists, and Clayface looks set to be a monster movie for the ages.

At the time of writing, Dead Lover doesn't have an official release date, but following a successful festival run over the course of this year, we can't imagine it'll be long before Yellow Veil Pictures sends the Frankenstein-tale out into the world for all to enjoy. Directed, co-written, produced by and starring the talented Grace Glowicki (Tito, the upcoming Honey Bunch), Dead Lover spins a new tale inspired by Shelley's classic novel, following a lonely gravedigger who attempts to resurrect the corpse of her lost love. Those in the UK can catch Dead Lover at the upcoming Soho Horror Film Festival; everyone else, hang tight for news of an official wide release date!