Old Creatures . . . : New Features

Universal Pictures is opening up its horror vaults to resurrect some venerable movie monsters.

Currently in development there: “Clive Barker’s ‘The Mummy,’ ” from the horror novelist who wrote and directed “Hellraiser.” And director John Carpenter, who remade RKO’s “The Thing” for Universal in 1982, has gone fishing for “The Creature From the Black Lagoon.”

“(Universal) used to make a lot of monster movies, and they’d love to do them again if they can find people to do them,” Carpenter tells us. “I talked to (studio exec) Tom Pollock and suggested ‘The Creature From the Black Lagoon,’ who was always one of my favorite ‘50s monsters.

“I liked the way he looked up at the girl from underwater. My idea is to make him a little more human, give him a little more intelligence. The story is in the writing stages now.”

Barker is co-writing his “Mummy” script with Mick Garris, who directed Universal’s just-aired “Psycho IV” for Showtime. Barker says that his bandaged zombie will be a departure from the seven previous Universal versions, which began in 1932 with Boris Karloff as “The Mummy.”

“I refer to our film as ‘The Egyptian Project’ because it’s so very different from ‘The Mummy’ that Universal produced,” Barker says. “Unfortunately it’s a top-secret project, but it’s radically, radically different.”

Carpenter, whose 1978 cult classic “Halloween” inspired a decade of slasher films, feels that the Universal films may mark a change in the direction of horror.

“I think there’s an appetite for a rejuvenated approach to horror,” Carpenter says. “There’s always a place for horror movies, for something that scares you. I think that the cycle of slasher films has kind of worn itself out.”