The Mummy: 10 Monster Films It Must Improve Upon

Back in 1941, The Wolf Man (as it was called in those days) was a 70 minute black and white feature that spun the tragic tale of a young man cursed by lycanthropy. By 2010, it was a $150 million effects movie from the director of Jurassic World III.

The result was a box office flop that Universal’s studio head later called “crappy” and “one of the worst we ever made.” Just like The Thing, The Wolfman isn’t really that bad….but it’s not that great, either.

Universal gave the movie an A list cast (Anthony Hopkins, Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt) and there’s some striking production design, but the half-baked script simply wasn’t ready to go before the cameras. The finished film is equal parts atmospheric period horror movie and fast-paced blockbuster, neither of which work well together and when the film drops story and character in favor of CG transformations and action sequences, it all starts to feel mechanical.