While Renfield’s box office failure will likely hurt the Universal Monsters universe, viewers still need to see some of these classic monsters gracing the big screen again. The Universal monster movies introduced some iconic villains and antiheroes to cinema viewers back in the ‘30s. However, attempts to reignite interest in this intellectual property have been disastrous. Famously, 2017’s The Mummy gave star Tom Cruise the biggest financial and critical flop of his carer, effectively killing the Dark Universe before it could begin. However, 2020’s The Invisible Man seemed to redeem this misstep.

A massive success, The Invisible Man was a rare horror movie that impressed critics and audiences alike. It briefly seemed like the Dark Universe might be a good idea again, albeit in a new, more contemporary form. However, the release of 2023’s Renfield put paid to this misguided notion. Renfield was a comedic retelling of Dracula that gave the eponymous ing star superpowers and an abusive relationship with Nicholas Cage’s abusive version of the Count. However, Renfield fared terribly at the box office, earning only $25 million on a budget of $65 million. Despite this failure, viewers still deserve original retellings of the Universal monster movie stories.

8 A New Take On Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde

While it won’t be Russell Crowe’s re-imagining (as teased in The Mummy 2017), the classic story “Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde” does deserve an updated screen adaptation. ittedly, Crowe’s terrible Mr. Hyde would put anyone off pursuing this plot. However, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde has the potential to be a clever metaphor for addiction, toxic masculinity, or any number of other vices. The character’s split personality is inherently tragic and could be a compelling story in the right hands. As long as this one is kept far from Russell Crowe’s CV, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde could be a clever, original retelling.

7 A Horror-Centric Dracula Reboot

After The Invisible Man’s success and Renfield’s failure, a full-throated and un-ironic horror adaptation of Dracula is overdue. While The Last Voyage of the Demeter and 2022’s The Invitation offer clever reworkings of the story, it has been a long time since Hollywood offered a genuinely scary, horror-focused take on Dracula. Even 1992’s lavish Bram Stoker’s Dracula leaned into the gothic romance elements of the plot, meaning there has long been an opening for a scary, bloody, and unabashedly horrifying version of the Count’s famous tale.

6 The Wolfman’s Gender-flipped Remake

The Wolfman has been used countless times as a metaphor for man’s innate savagery, the perils of messing with nature, and generational trauma. However, a gender-flipped reboot could inject some urgency and originality into this premise by borrowing from the likes of Raw (2016) and A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014). Much like Bones & All made cannibalism the bedrock for a tragic romance, The Woflman’s remake could turn the story of a human's transformation into a beast into a thoughtful meditation on masculinity, femininity, and the blurred line between these binary categories.

5 The Creature From the Black Lagoon

While the outsized success of The Shape of Water pretty much rules out a period-piece take on The Creature From the Black Lagoon, an eco-horror reboot could work. The Creature From the Black Lagoon is among the less ed of Universal’s monsters and this could afford a lot of creative freedom to any director working on this re-imagining. If the Creature became a living embodiment of climate anxiety and fears around pollution, then The Creature From the Black Lagoon could turn a largely forgotten franchise into a newly urgent, polemical horror movie with something to say.

4 A Darker Take On The Mummy

Broadly speaking, audiences loved Brendan Fraser’s version of The Mummy and understandably hated Cruise’s 2017 reboot. However, a grounded take on The Mummy that leans into the consequences of museums hoarding stolen artifacts could be a smart, socially conscious horror movie. Jordan Peele’s work has proven that satirically charged horror movies can be profitable among mainstream audiences, and there is no reason to think that a take on this story that abandons The Mummy 1999’s blockbuster fun in favor of serious horror would not work. It would be far removed from the successful 1999 iteration, but could tap into the legacy of the chilling 1932 classic.

3 Frankenstein's Comeback

The twin failures of 2014’s I, Frankenstein, and 2015’s Victor Frankenstein have kept Mary Shelley’s creation out of the multiplex for almost a decade, meaning this classic is overdue a straightforward retelling. Much like its predecessor Bram Stoker’s Dracula, 1994's Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein shied away from the horror elements of Shelley’s novel in favor of tragic romance. This means that the stage is perfectly set for a gorier, darker take on Frankenstein that reminds viewers how terrifying Shelley’s story was once considered. Provided this version leans into Dr. Frankenstein’s hubris and the monster’s humanity, there is no reason that a fresh take on Frankenstein would not succeed.

2 Elizabeth Banks’ The Invisible Woman

Director/star Elizabeth Banks’ take on The Invisible Woman still needs to happen even though there has been little movement on the project since the movie was announced way back in November 2019. While The Invisible Man’s success in 2020 was rooted largely in how seriously the suspenseful movie took its subject matter, The Invisible Woman could prove equally successful if the spinoff takes the opposite approach. Judging by Cocaine Bear’s inspired lunacy, Banks is the perfect director for a campy, comedic take on The Invisible Woman. Successfully utilizing this comedy-horror approach would prove that the franchise can sustain both divergent tones and both movies could end up with further sequels.

1 A Re-imagining of Dracula’s Daughter

The 1936 curio Dracula’s Daughter sees the Count’s offspring attempt to shed her father’s curse, and a remake could borrow from everything from Hereditary to Relic to Succession as the movie tells this familiar story from a more contemporary perspective. By depicting Dracula’s vampirism as an inherited flaw (but his vast wealth and aristocracy as convenient compensation for his orphaned daughter), a remake of Dracula’s Daughter could make a thorny, thoughtful horror satire out of the original movie’s underutilized premise. With the right leading lady, this lesser-known Universal Monster movie could be the project that revives the franchise after Renfield’s failure.