There’s a party line when it comes to Universal’s upcoming monster movies: Don’t worry, guys, they’ll be super scary. Doctor Strange and Passengers writer Jon Spaihts claimed that The Mummy will be “the first Mummy film in the entire Universal canon with the true power to terrify.” Now Eric Heisserer, Spaihts’ co-writer on the Van Helsing reboot, is selling something similar. Speaking with Collider, Heisserer explained that he aimed to give this new take on the story of the dude who goes to battle with vampires and other creatures plenty of frights. “I can say that my intent stepping in was to make it as scary as possible, partly because I know how to do that, and also because when you’re the only human surrounded by a bunch of supernatural creatures, that’s gotta be absolutely unnerving,” he said.
Heisserer’s confidence in his horror bona fides comes from penning the likes of last year’s Lights Out, as well as various other projects in the genre. However, he has an Oscar nomination for Arrival, so maybe he should think about turning Van Helsing into a melancholy meditation on communication, love, and loss.