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'Scream VI' team Radio Silence reuniting with Melissa Barrera for Universal monster movie
Get ready for Radio Silence's take on some classic Universal Horror ideas.
Radio Silence, the filmmaking collective responsible for horror-comedy hit Ready or Not and for the revival of the Scream franchise over the course of two films in the last two years, is taking on a Universal Horror project. According to The Hollywood Reporter, several members of the Scream VI team are heading to the studio to work on an official untitled Universal Monster movie that might have its roots in a classic vampire flick.
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who directed both 2022's Scream and this year's Scream VI, are on board as producers, as are Scream VI co-writer James Vanderbilt and executive producer Chad Villela, bringing much of the same collaborative energy to the new film. Per Deadline, another Scream VI alumnus — star Melissa Barrera, who played Sam Carpenter — has been tapped to star in the mystery film.
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"I was obsessed with horror movies when I was like 10, 11, 12," Barrera said during a recent guest appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers. "And I wasn’t allowed to watch horror movies, so I would either lock myself in my room, or at sleepovers with friends, watch Scream and Final Destination and I Know What You Did Last Summer and all those obsessively. I’m kind of a masochist that way because I love watching horror movies and I cannot sleep at night. But I kind of love that, weirdly."
As for the film itself, the plot is still a secret, but THR reports that the project was previously titled Dracula's Daughter, which is very interesting indeed.
Released by Universal in 1936 and starring Gloria Holden in the leading role, Dracula's Daughter follows the story of Countess Zaleska, the daughter of Count Dracula, who battles her own dark legacy and thirst for blood while also facing undeniable vampiric urges. Produced as a sequel to Dracula made without Bela Lugosi's involvement, it remains a landmark queer horror masterpiece, as well as a great vampire movie in its own right.
According to THR, the new version of the story would take a very different approach, as previous drafts of the script by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick cast Dracula's daughter as one of a group of young people who are set upon by kidnappers, giving the whole thing more of a thriller feel. We have no idea at the moment if Radio Silence is keeping that plot or jettisoning it entirely in favor of a new reinvention, but the project is already being compared to The Invisible Man and the upcoming Renfield as a film that will move some classic Universal characters and formulas in a new direction.
The project does not yet have a release date or a cast, but we'll keep you posted on how Radio Silence seeks to take of Universal's beloved catalog of monsters.
If you're already thirsty for some bloody good Dracula fun, check out Nicolas Cage's take on the Count in Renfield, opening in theaters this Friday, April 14. You can pick up tickets right now on Fandango.
