Caffeinated Film

In an interview with Fandom, The Mummy director Alex Kurtzman let slip Univeral’s slate for their Dark Universe.

For those of you not in the know wondering what the hell a Dark Universe is, it’s what Univeral has taken to calling their interconnected series of horror movie reboots retooled as action blockbusters. Like the upcoming Mummy. Feeling excited yet?

Here’s the slate:

“We know we’re going to do Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Invisible Man.”

Yup, in addition to their Frankenstein movies, Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Invisible Man, Universal is going to try to tie Hunchback of Notre Dame and Phantom of the Opera into this thing. Nevermind the fact that neither of those films are horror movies, this reeks of Universal putting their cart before their horse.

Universal already attempted to launch their Dark Universe thing a couple of years ago with the dreadful Dracula Untold. After that blew up in their face, they retroactively decided that The Mummy would kick things off. Which looks aggressively bland and is currently tracking to open to a hilariously small $35M this weekend.

I just don’t understand Univeral’s game plan here. I know shared universe are all the rage these days, but really, who cares about seeing Frankenstein interact with some guy with an unfortunate spine deformity? In what will probably amount to a shameless League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ripoff? I know I don’t. I just don’t see any way this works out well.

But, stranger things have happened. I guess we’ll get our first taste at this Dark Universe thing with The Mummy this weekend. You guys going? I think I’ll be skipping it for It Comes At Night.