Len Wiseman’s Underworld (2003) is the first film in a now decades spanning franchise starring Kate Beckinsale as a vampire. The film is an obvious aesthetic descendent of Blade (1998), The Crow (1994), Resident Evil (2002), and The Matrix (1999). The Underworld series explores the fictional netherworld of monsters living in a “contemporary” setting. In doing this the films combine the iconographies and narrative tropes of monster movies, late twentieth century goth culture, and elements of the action blockbuster.
Typically a film like Underworld is sold based upon the monster effects in the film, promising a grotesque spectacle of horror or gore. However Underworld, like Resident Evil, was marketed based upon the sex appeal of its catsuit wearing star. When Underworld was released you may not have known that the film deals in vampire and werewolf lore, but you sure knew that Kate Beckinsale’s latex clad behind was going to be important to the film.
Even though the marketing campaign sold Underworld as a kind of gothic Galaxina (1980) the film itself doesn’t operate on an aggressively sexual level. Danny McBride’s script, void of any irony, prioritizes world building; establishing a continuity in which these characters reside. The actors all play their parts straight and even that isn’t enough to lend McBride’s script actual urgency. The whole affair is bogged down by trying to explain the warring cultures of the vampires and lycans. Michael Sheen, who is so campy and unhinged in the Twilight films, takes his role as the werewolf leader Lucien completely serious.
What Underworld offers us are special effects that are only half as good as those in The Howling (1982), Kate Beckinsale’s buttocks, and plenty of shots of Bill Nighy (the vampire leader) hissing very, very loudly. Suffice to say the two hour run time is gratuitous and a laborious chore. Perhaps the sequels and prequels are better, but Underworld is a failure.
