The Reincarnations of the Dark Universe
A failed franchise attempt prompted Universal to think outside the box with its classic monsters.
Out now in theaters in the US and elsewhere, Abigail is a riotously entertaining horror comedy, brought to you by the Radio Silence crew (the team behind Ready or Not and the two most recent Scream movies). It’s a fun spin on an age-old genre staple, one that – I subsequently found out while looking up background information after the press screening – is (very) indirectly connected to the most infamous example of a studio putting the cart before the horse: the Dark Universe.
It all began, fittingly enough, with a vampire, nay, the vampire: in 2014, Universal released Dracula Untold, basically a Batman Begins for the famous count, loosely inspired by the story of Vlad Tepes a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler, the Romanian ruler/warlord who supposedly birthed the legend of Dracula. Shot as a standalone movie, it was given a post-credits scene potentially setting up a larger cinematic universe, with Dracula now roaming free in the present day. However, the modest box office caused the studio to downplay any such ambitions and reconsider their plans.
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