The Universal Monsters loom menacingly over horror history. For approximately 20 years, from the 1930s to the early ’50s, Universal Studios dominated the monster-movie space, with series stemming from Frankenstein, Dracula, The Invisible Man, and more.
Since then, plenty of filmmakers have come up with their own otherworldly boogeymen — slashers, shapeshifting aliens, nun ghosts, killer dolls. Some of them even fit neatly into the Universal Monster rubric. While Universal itself has attempted to revive the Universal Monsters as a concept several times, the studio’s mix of public-domain literary characters and vague creature concepts has made it easy enough for other filmmakers to try their hands at similar material, whether attempting to elevate the characters or engaging in the time-honored horror tradition of the blatant ripoff.
For example, the famous Hammer horror films of the ’60s and ’70s included their own Universal-style monster series dedicated to Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster. Over a two-period period in the ’90s, Sony-owned studios made R-rated versions of Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolf Man. Just this month, Guillermo del Toro has re-adapted Frankenstein, and his version makes a fine companion piece to his unofficial Creature from the Black Lagoon riff, the 2017 Best Picture Oscar-winner The Shape of Water.
In the spirit of so many alternate versions, here’s a set of alternate 21st-century Universal-style monsters that weren’t conceived by the same creators or even the same studios, but helped fill the gap for fans of these classic characters while Universal was busy trying to extend the Mummy franchise or make a Van Helsing series happen. These movies are mostly indies, none produced by Universal Pictures, and none connected to other series. They stand alone — but together, they’re a makeshift Alternate Monster Six-Pack.
6
Hollow Man (2000)
Given its big-name director (Paul Verhoeven), studio (Columbia Pictures), and major star (Kevin Bacon), Hollow Man has some similarities to Sony’s aforementioned ’90s horror movies. But Hollow Man stands apart not just in release date but its willingness to alienate the audience from the jump: Bacon’s scientist already seems like a leering creep before he becomes an invisible man-slash-monster. This actually isn’t too far off from the sensibility of James Whale’s original 1933 Invisible Man, though. If anything, Whale’s version of the Invisible Man is even less sympathetic: He begins the movie already invisible, and already going mad with power. (Those Universal Monster movies are expedient.)
If ever a filmmaker was well-suited to dig further into the grotesquerie of a man who immediately harnesses his strange new power for maximum wrongdoing, it’s equally satirical and thrilling sensationalist Paul Verhoeven. Hollow Man may not be as terrific as Starship Troopers (or Leigh Whannell’s Universal-produced 2020 movie The Invisible Man), but it arguably uses familiar Universal Monster framework for a clearer expression of Verhoeven’s cynical sensibilities than Total Recall or Basic Instinct.
Where to watch: Tubi, or rent/purchase on Amazon or Apple.
5
Dracula 2000 (2000)
Look, some of the later-period Universal monster movies are shlocky, especially when Bela Lugosi isn’t around, and the modern equivalent of this is probably Gerard Butler playing Drac as more of a Eurotrash guy. Dracula 2000 is no one’s idea of a high-quality Bram Stoker adaptation, but there are enough of those; this one truly does feel like the millennial equivalent of the later-period Universal Dracula sequels, which often hastened to get the character out of 19th-century environments to save on period sets.
This one is so rooted in the early 21st century that it co-stars singer Vitamin C, among a who’s-huh? roster of young performers who Bob and Harvey Weinstein (who unfortunately produced this) must have thought had next-big-thing potential. Hence Jonny Lee Miller, Jeri Ryan, Sean Patrick Thomas, Omar Epps, and Jennifer Esposito sharing the screen with Butler, the one bet who did eventually pay off into significant movie stardom. It’s a ridiculous movie from the director of the My Bloody Valentine remake and Drive Angry — and as such, it’s a lot of fun.
Where to watch: Paramount+, MGM+, or rent/purchase at Amazon or Apple.
4
Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
Though Universal scored big hits with 1999’s The Mummy and its sequels around the turn of the century, alternate Mummy movies have been pretty scarce, maybe because zombies more or less replaced them as the slow-moving undead of choice circa 28 Days Later. But there is one notable non-Universal mummy picture from the 21st century, with the horror-movie bona fides of Phantasm filmmaker Don Coscarelli and Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell.Campbell plays a retirement-home occupant who’s convinced he’s actually Elvis Presley, accompanied by Ossie Davis as an ersatz JFK. (He was dyed Black by the government after the assassination, he nonsensically explains.) They may be delusional, but the mummy who attacks their home is real — and so is the comic sweetness with which the old men rise to the challenge of defeating it. It’s a clever way of upstaging a supernatural creature that’s rarely been one of the more personality-driven Universal monsters.
Where to watch: Tubi, the Roku Channel, or rent/purchase at Amazon or Apple.
3
May (2003)
Considering that Bride of Frankenstein is the best Frankenstein movie, it would make sense to attempt a gender-flip of the doctor himself. Universal’s Focus Features put out the wonderful Lisa Frankenstein in 2024, but it doesn’t feature a mad doctor, and its monster is more zombie than stitched-together composite. (It’s still really good, though, and any Tim Burton fans should seek it out.) The less obvious but more fitting choice is Lucky McKee’s May. It doesn’t allude to the original text in its title, and plays like a slasher movie for much of its runtime, which allows May to come together as a Frankenstein creation cleverly and organically.
So many Frankenstein stories risk overshadowing the titular doctor with the frequently misnamed creature; May goes the opposite direction by working as a character study of an introverted vet assistant (Angela Bettis) struggling to understand human life, only socially rather than physiologically. By the time she’s gathering up fresh body parts to assemble something new, her behavior has become both horrifying and tragic. This is both consistent with the man-as-monster Frankenstein story and more empathetic about the reasons for wanting to create life from parts.
Where to watch: Tubi, the Criterion Channel, or rent/purchase from Amazon or Apple.
2
Sweetheart (2019)
Many of the Universal Monsters have an unexpected lovability to their humanoid forms, even as they make their destructive attempts to live in the human world. It’s admittedly difficult to find a Creature from the Black Lagoon variant that pulls this off, as stories about this kind of character already tend to straddle the line between monster movie (empathetic, thought-provoking about what makes us human) and creature feature (antagonistic, thought-provoking about how a strange new life form might be killed).
Sweetheart is more on the creature-feature side, but it’s a damn good one, sort of a Creature from the Blue Lagoon about people stranded on a remote, uninhabited island — only with relationship power dynamics rather than the nascent sexual exploration of that 1980 softcore coming-of-age survival story. The relationship in Sweetheart doesn’t fully come together; the filmmaking, however, is terrific, with smart treatment of a well-designed gill-man-esque creature that maintains some of that Black Lagoon mystique. Lead Kiersey Clemons spends a fair amount of her screen time in Cast Away-style isolation, anchoring the movie so capably that it can afford to keep the creature menacingly hidden for long stretches.
Where to watch: For rental or purchase from Amazon or Apple.
1
The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020)
Deputy sheriff John Marshall (Jim Cummings) grapples with addiction issues, rage, and difficulty relating to family and coworkers. At one point, he pries a loose tooth out from his mouth. He seems like a perfect candidate to let his inner beast run free as a werewolf. Yet The Wolf of Snow Hollow never really gives serious credence to the idea that whoever or whatever is tearing apart locals might secretly be John with a supernatural boost, maybe because by halfway through the movie (and his panicked investigation of the murders), he seems plenty monstrous without growing beastly claws, fangs, or fur.
This is how The Wolf of Snow Hollow, which Cummings also wrote and directed, finds a new angle on the Universal version of the Wolf Man, where Larry Talbot is typically a sympathetic point-of-view character. Here, we see a man transform spiritually as he loses his struggle with alcoholism; the “real” monster doesn’t have a chance to register as the social outcast, because we’re too busy watching John cast himself out. Despite the dark subject matter and monster-attack gore, the movie’s dark humor gives it a touch of James Whale magic that The Wolf Man never had.
Where to watch: Prime Video, Tubi, or the Roku Channel, or rent/purchase from Amazon or Apple.
