The classic monsters that became iconic in Universal’s classic films have made a comeback in three new movies created by Blumhouse and Atomic Monster. Instead of focusing on gothic horror, these films take a more contemporary and realistic approach to the monsters. While some of the bold changes may not always succeed, they do give each movie a unique identity. Today, I will rank all three from worst to best. Just to clarify, this is my opinion. If you disagree, feel free to leave your own ratings in the comments.
3. The Invisible Man (2020)
For those unaware, I happen to love The Invisible Man as a concept and character. The original movie starring Claude Rains remains a favorite of mine, and I loved Hollow Man from 2000. So, when it was announced that Leigh Whannel, the co-creator of Saw and Insidious, was going to write and direct a new movie based on the H.G. Wells book, I immediately was excited. Sadly, though, six years later, it remains one of the most disappointing reboots I have ever watched.
On the one hand, Leigh Whannell is still a very capable director with insanely stylish cinematography on display, the actual Invisible Man special effects are great, and a bleak and claustrophobic style of filmmaking that makes every scene feel like an invisible stalker is staring at them. The performances from Elisabeth Moss and Aldis Hodge carry the movie for me, and I think when he is allowed to shine, Oliver Jackson-Cohen was menacing as Griffin, AKA the Invisible Man.
Unfortunately, this movie frustrated me for almost its entire runtime. While it attempts to present a grounded and realistic version of the iconic monster, it raised more logical questions than it answered. While it’s true that not everything in a movie needs to be explained or adhere to logic, some elements simply made no sense at all. For instance, Adrian Griffin appears to either teleport or move as fast as The Flash, as he manages to catch up with Cecelia, the main protagonist, in an incredibly short amount of time. Things also happen in such ways that make it hard to believe that absolutely nobody but Cecelia was able to detect him. Did this version of Griffin get trained by ninjas or something? The biggest suspension of disbelief is how the invisibility is pulled off, and, on top of it being a very lackluster reveal, it just makes me question how everything is invisible.
Spoiler alert: it’s just a fancy suit. I wasn’t a big fan of it because the design is uninspired, and technically it’s not invisibility. The title should be The Cloaked Man, instead.
While I appreciate the film’s focus on the perspective of the abused victim of Griffin, it unfortunately makes the titular monster feel more like a guest star in his own movie. Griffin has only about ten lines throughout the entire film, which is a significant misstep considering that this character is known for his taunting and his ability to create horror with his voice.
With that said, there is one genuinely great scene where it finally feels like an Invisible Man movie, featuring a massacre inside a hospital. That scene alone almost made up for the ninety minutes of boredom I had and showed that Leigh Whannell is still an amazingly talented filmmaker when he shines.
Other than that, it was not a movie for me. Was it a terrible movie? I don’t think so. It was just a very lackluster portrayal of my favorite Universal monster.
2. Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (2026)
After Evil Dead Rise became one of my favorite entries in that franchise, I was curious to see what director Lee Cronin would do with The Mummy. However, I remained only cautiously optimistic, because the concept of the movie was a strange one, with a family finding their daughter mummified in a sarcophagus eight years after she disappears. I certainly didn’t want them to just rehash the original Boris Karloff or Arnold Vosloo versions of the Mummy, but I could see this direction alienating fans of that franchise.
My overall opinion was that it was pretty good…but still disappointing in some aspects. First off, I LOVED how committed the movie was to being as twisted and vile as possible. From beginning to end, nobody is safe and it has some of the best modern gore I have seen in a while, and this is coming from someone who loved Saw films. The toenail scene… *shudders*
The special effects, both practical and digital, were top tier. Katie’s actress was unrecognizable as the Mummy, and her performance on top made her a great antagonist to watch throughout the movie. The rest of the family’s performances were a blast to watch as they slowly devolve because of this curse in their house. I also appreciate that this is a vastly different kind of Mummy than anything seen before in this franchise, yet it still felt like it belonged.
May Calamawy shined the brightest as an Egyptian detective trying to unravel the case of Katie and why she is this demented Mummy. I honestly wish she was the main protagonist instead of who we got. Which brings me to the negatives…
While I enjoyed the movie overall, the main character named Charlie was a weird one. I don’t know if it was the direction he was given or the actor’s performance was just bizarre, but Charlie was strangely flat and wooden, with him having the same wide-eyed blank expression through almost the whole movie except for a couple of scenes where he delivered some pretty good emotional beats.
Lee Cronin’s directing style in Evil Dead Rise is quite evident in this film. This creates a sense of conflict for me because The Mummy essentially resembles an Evil Dead movie, just with an Egyptian backdrop. Characters in the film get possessed and resurrected into twisted beings that taunt their victims, much like the Deadites in the Evil Dead franchise. While there are scenes where this approach works well, there are also moments when it leans too heavily into that territory. It feels as though Lee Cronin wrote an Evil Dead movie and later reworked it into a Mummy film.
That’s why the latter half of the movie falls apart for me, especially the climax. Not only does it feel too much like Evil Dead, but it also wraps up super fast and in a very cliché way. I do like the very ending scene, however, as it is nice to see horror villains get a good comeuppance.
1. Wolf Man (2025)
When it was first revealed what the titular monster looked like in 2025’s Wolf Man, I will admit that I was not impressed. Granted, it was a poor choice to have the first look be a costumed entertainer at an event, instead of an official promo image or vehicle. Even the trailers didn’t do much to get me excited, especially after I was so disappointed by The Invisible Man, which had the same director.
I am glad to say that I went in with an open mind and ended up being pleasantly surprised by what Leigh Whannell delivered with Wolf Man. It takes away the mystical elements of lycanthropy and, instead, turns the condition into a fast-acting degenerative disease that mutates human physiology with wolf traits.
The best way to describe Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man is that it’s one part The Fly and one part Panic Room. In my opinion, it executes that idea well, as it maintains what I think is the most important element of the Wolf Man story: tragedy. Christopher Abbott plays Blake, the new Wolf Man, and his story hits me hard on a personal level. All the character wanted was to be a better man than his father, and now he’s rapidly morphing into a rabid monster that will try to kill his wife and child. There is a theme of toxicity being like a family curse and it manifests in two different ways in the movie. Christopher Abbott’s performance was honestly heartbreaking in the best ways, which I think would make Lon Chaney Jr. proud.
I also admired that Wolf Man takes a slower approach to everything. Instead of multiple transformations into the werewolf, it’s one slow, devastating transformation that uses body horror to show Blake devolve over the course of an entire night, and it gets gruesome.
While I understand why some still didn’t like the design for the werewolf, I personally grew to appreciate it, especially with it being explained as the result of a blood-borne disease. It also helps make the transformation feel more visceral and amplifies the tragic angle of Blake’s character as he succumbs to the curse.
Leigh Whannell still brought his A-game to the filmmaking, with great shots, creative ways of showing the werewolf’s perspective, and filling the movie with tension and suspense. It all results in a very straightforward movie as well, with it all happening in just one long sequence of events across a single night. I’m always appreciative of efficient storytelling: it doesn’t have to rely on a bunch of sideplots. It focuses on a family stuck in one location with one monster outside and another inside.
Is it perfect? Not quite. The pacing isn’t always consistent, and the film struggles to conceal a particular twist that I predicted the moment the werewolf action began. I also wish it had run a bit longer. Much like The Mummy, Wolf Man ends rather abruptly just as the climax starts to become interesting. However, this isn’t as frustrating in this case, since the majority of the film consists of one continuous chase.
Overall, I was surprised that most people didn’t care for Wolf Man. For me, it was easily the most enjoyable of the three. If I were to judge the new lineup of Universal monster movies as a whole, I’d say it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Lots of great ideas and concepts in play, but the execution is not always perfect. I’m curious to see what the future of these movies delivers, especially with monsters like The Creature From The Black Lagoon and Jekyll & Hyde.
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