Don't look now, but The Invisible Man is set to slink its way into theaters this Friday. Do you have your tickets in tow yet?
If not, perhaps you should. Not only is the newest horror film from Leigh Whannell (Upgrade) generating rave reviews, but it also appears to be the best Universal Monster Movie remake to come about in recent memory. Not a high bar, we know, but if Universal is going to continue its effort to remake and reboot its Dark Universe horror canon, this is the quality the studio should rise to. For comparison, here are the 10 best Classic Universal Monster Movie Remakes and Reboots!
The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Empire
By running its course into a laughable farce of a third entry, The Mummy 3 buried the franchise under a tomb for nearly a decade. Naturally, it would take Tom Cruise to rescue the property!
In Tomb of the Dragon Empire, the mythology of the mummy is taken to China, where Rick O'Connell's ambitious son Alex attempts to unearth the mummified remains of the First Emperor of Qin. However, what awakens is accursed shapeshifting energy that threatens to destroy everything in its path.
Dracula Untold
In Universal's first official monster movie reboot, the origin story of Dracula harks back to the legend of Vlad the Impaler. Unfortunately, the PG-13 effort comes off as more of a slow history lesson than a horrifying monster movie.
When young Prince Vlad (Luke Evans) is tasked with comprising a large army at the behest of a Turk ruler, the young man has no choice but to oblige. However, what he unleashes is a supernatural force that threatens to slaughter the entire village.
The Mummy 2017
While Tom Cruise made a desperate attempt to give A-list credibility to Universal's monster movie reboots, the 2017 version of The Mummy failed to strike a chord with audiences or critics. Hence, MI: VI and Top Gun 2!
The expensive tentpole finds an ancient Egyptian princess's tomb exhumed, only to unleash a malefic curse on those nearby. Nick Morton (Cruise) is tasked with not only transporting the mummy but to protect it, as well as ensure it does the least amount of harm imaginable. With a safe PG-13 tableau and broad sensibility, The Mummy needed more life!
Van Helsing
After the two moneymaking Mummy reboots of the late 90s and early aughts, Universal felt so good about director Stephen Sommers that they entrusted him to recreate similar success with Van Helsing!
Starring Hugh Jackman, Van Helsing is the famed vampire hunter character made famous in Bram Stoker's Dracula. For the purposes of this quasi-remake, Van Helsing is summoned to Transylvania to take on Count Dracula and his army of werewolves resulting from Dr. Frankenstein's research.
The Mummy Returns
Following the success of The Mummy in 1999, Universal gave Stephen Sommers a bigger budget, cast, and expansive canvas to tell the continuing tale of The Mummy Returns!
While fans felt a bit let down by the end result, critics saw a major upgrade from the first to the second film in the franchise. This time around, the plot concerns the mummified remains of Imhotep being transported to a London museum. Of course, an ancient curse is unearthed with the corpse that wreaks bloody havoc on those who come in with it.
The Wolfman
Give the excitement of a new decade and an A-list pedigree, Universal's 2010 remake of The Wolfman felt underwhelming when initially released. In retrospect, it's one of the better Universal remakes/reboots to date!
Starring Benicio Del Toro as the titular lycanthrope, not to mention Sir Anthony Hopkins as his father, director Joe Johnston went to great lengths to craft an affectionately faithful redo of the classic story. As such, the plot finds an American man bitten by a strange feral beast upon returning to his wooded ancestral estate, only to morph into a bloodthirsty werewolf!
The Mummy
Believe it or not, Universal let 20 years before reanimating The Mummy, the studio's second official monster movie remake since Dracula in 1979. Hey, what's 20 years to an entombed corpse, right?!
And yet, Universal struck gold with the Brendan Fraser-starring action/adventure film that made enough money at the box-office to warrant two sequels. The plot revolves around an American soldier (Fraser) in the French Foreign Legion who unwittingly unearths an entombed mummy in the ancient city of Hamunaptra.
The Monster Squad
Okay, so The Monster Squad may not be an official Universal monster movie rehash, but anyone who's seen it knows what a loving homage the movie pays to such. It'd be foolish to omit it from the mix!
The film concerns a group of preteen misfits who dub themselves the Monster Squad. But when the kids inadvertently get their hands on an ancient amulet, a portal from hell opens up and delivers Dracula, The Mummy, Wolfman, and Gillman to their sleepy town. An all-time 80s classic!
Dracula
While overshadowed by Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 iteration, we'll have you know that John Badham's 1979 film Dracula is the first official attempt by Universal to revive its monster movie roster.
Starring Frank Langella as the titular bloodsucker, the movie takes us back to 1913 England, where the rakish Count tries desperately to find an immortal bride. Along the way, gory collateral damage is left in Dracula's wake as he chews, chomps and chides his way through a parade of unsuspecting victims.
The Invisible Man
By the s of nearly all who've seen it so far, The Invisible Man is not only an instant new horror classic, but it's also the best Universal reboot of the entire bunch.
One of the surefire reasons for such is director Leigh Whannell's brazen willingness to part from the original tale and refashion the story for a new audience. As a result, the Invisible Man becomes a harrowing villain who stalks and torments his widowed wife (Elisabeth Moss), who she believes faked his own death.
