It’s been over three years since Universal announced their hysterically self-serious plans for the “Dark Universe,” a shared cinematic world that would see modernized versions of the classic Universal Monsters via a broody photo of the world’s intended cast. It included superstars like Tom Cruise (The Mummy), disgraced shithead Johnny Depp (The Invisible Man), Javier Bardem (Frankenstein), and Russell Crowe (Dr. Jekyll, the Nick Fury of this universe). Perhaps you’ve noticed, perhaps you haven’t, but it warrants noting that this star-studded multi-million dollar endeavor never happened thanks to a) 2017’s The Mummy being a big dumb bad movie that made about seventeen dollars at the box office and b) it being a very bad idea that everyone involved with should feel bad for.
To be *slightly* fair, you can at least understand where they were coming from. Setting aside the way the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe reshaped what studios wanted from blockbuster entertainment, the last truly successful take on one of the classic Universal Monsters came all the way back in the ‘90s with the Brendan Fraser/Rachel Weisz-starring The Mummy. This take on the character drastically toned down the horror elements and instead opted for a swashbuckling adventure angle that worked out great (seriously, go rewatch those first two movies – they’re a blast).
Still, the endeavor of the Dark Universe spoke to a fundamental misunderstanding on the part of the studio executives involved as to what made these characters resonant when they first debuted onscreen at the dawn of Hollywood’s Golden Age. While they were cultural forces to be reckoned with in their day, films like Dracula, The Wolf-Man, and Bride of Frankenstein have a lasting legacy rooted not in bombast but in nuance.
You don’t need another film writer telling you that horror is a genre that speaks to social anxieties. Let’s just assume that we’re all well and familiar with this school of thought – nay, actuality. While horror existed long before movies (with most all of the Universal Monsters having roots in literature) and therefore brought this school of scares with something to say long before Hollywood did, it was these movies that properly kicked off a lifetime of social commentary in horror for moviegoers at large.
Dracula is rooted not only in a Victorian-era fear of sex and queerness but in European xenophobia. Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein contemplate whether monstrosity is an exterior or interior quality while Jekyll & Hyde and The Wolf-Man ruminate on the duality of man, mental illness, and culturally-instilled self-loathing. Monsters at large, but especially these monsters, are a lens through which we analyze what we don’t like about ourselves both individually and collectively.
The Dark Universe steered (or at least attempted to steer) these characters away from those roots. If The Mummy and Dracula Untold (which may or may not have been a part of the franchise plans – it remains unclear) are any indication, these movies would have been blockbuster-style action films more akin to Mission: Impossible at best or Underworld at worst. Neither contains much nuance or room for any deeper thematic reading beyond what’s available on the surface. Perhaps this is why this weekend’s The Invisible Man feels like such a fresh, exciting step in the right direction for these films.
Director Leigh Whannell’s update on the classic character takes on the angle of a horror film about domestic abuse and gaslighting, with the titular monster this time taking the shape of Adrian, the abusive significant other of Elizabeth Moss’s protagonist. The trailers for the film have shown us that after seemingly dying, Adrian returns as an invisible man, stalking and manipulating his ex with the aid of his newfound infliction. Her claims of his return are, of course, disregarded by friends and medical experts alike – after all, how ludicrous do the claims of an invisible man sound to most?
It’s a deft angle for the filmmakers to take – and one that feels extraordinarily topical in a world in which much public discourse over the last few years has centered on abuse and the importance of believing victims of it who come forward with their stories. What’s more, early reviews of the film indicate that it takes on these issues with care rather than in a fashion that plays out like exploitation. Whannell’s film seems to seek to examine the issue with empathy rather than use it for shock value the way that cheaper directors might – there’s that nuance we’ve been talking so much about.
The original Universal Monster movies spoke to the anxieties of their era. New takes on the characters should do the same – after all, there’s no shortage of subject matter for these films to explore. Whether it’s a Wolf-Man film focusing on the dialogue surrounding mental illness or a (proper, Tom Cruise-free) Mummy film dissecting the racial issues surrounding the Egyptology boom that paved the way for the original film, it is if anything the perfect time for these characters to be brought back to the big screen.
We just have to hope that when they make it happen, the Powers That Be use the blueprint drafted by The Invisible Man rather than the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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