Universal’s Dark Universe is based on its classic monster movies, but fell short of franchise-building after 2017’s terrible The Mummy reboot (which even Tom Cruise’s antics couldn’t save) expectations and was harshly panned by critics and detractors, hence the colossal failure. But that hasn’t stopped Universal Pictures from once again trying to revive the old horror franchise with a simpler, director-driven approach, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon will be the next to get a modern makeover.
We’re still waiting to see how the upcoming Werewolf reboot will pan out, but 2020’s pre-pandemic Invisible Man reboot was a compelling and meaningful update to the original horror concept, so this indie horror There are a few highlights in the new strategy that allow each filmmaker to reimagine the monsters we’ve known for decades.
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1954’s The Creature from the Black Lagoon remains one of those traditional monster movies that pops up in remake discussions from time to time, and now Deadline is reporting that horror veteran James Wan, who also made Furious 7 and With blockbusters like the two Aquaman films, it could be that filmmakers are diving headlong into those dark waters.
The project, co-developed by Atomic Monster and Universal Pictures, is “a grounded, modern retelling that respects the original classic while leaning into visceral horror.” In case you didn’t know, two of Hollywood’s biggest mainstream “horror houses” at the moment, Atomic Monster and Blumhouse, have teamed up, and they’re already planning other major revivals, like a new Blair Witch movie (in their usual on top of the original film) project).
For Wan, this is a meaningful endeavor. The Aquaman movies (mostly underwater) have incorporated a surprising amount of horror elements, and it shows that he managed to make a completely unhinged horror movie in between those DCEU entries, Malevolence. Never intending to leave the horror behind.
His interpretation of “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” is both fresh and classical, and in Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” (2017), especially if there is a twisted romantic angle in this version.
