7 Reasons Why Blumhouse Taking Over The Universal Monsters Is A GREAT Thing

When it was announced just before the release of Alex Kurtzman's The Mummy back in 2017 that Universal had this full slate of Dark Universe films on the horizon, complete with big-name leading stars like Javier Bardem, Tom Cruise, and possibly even Angelina Jolie, complete with the worst photoshopped cast picture ever released(https://www.vulture.com/2017/05/universal-monsterverse-dark-universe-photo-depp-bardem-crowe-cruise.html), it was all a bit surreal.

Because as exciting as the prospect of a Mummy reboot starring Tom Cruise may have seemed, it was far less enticing in execution. And as good a job as I'm sure Bardem would do with as Frankenstein's monster, he would just kind of always be 'Javier Bardem in monster make-up'.

While the original Universal Monsters stars like Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and Lon Chaney Jr. may be horror royalty now, they were absolute nobodies before being cast in their respective roles. Part of what made those characters so electrifying and so terrifying was the fact that audiences had no idea who was under the prosthetics, so they simply were the monsters.

Which is one of many, many reasons why ditching Johnny Depp from the leading role of The Invisible Man is an incredibly smart move. Here's hoping the rest of Blumhouse's films follow suit and leave the A-list behind in favor of raw, unfounded talent who are capable of being truly horrifying.