Is this gothic or what? All images Photo Credit: Egon Endrenyi ©2003 Subterranean Prods LLC. All rights reserved.

This is the summer of monster battles, with Freddy battling Jason and now vampires in a war with Lycans or werewolves. It’s a tradition that stretches back as far as Universal’s Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, and looks to continue in 2004 with Van Helsing and Alien Vs. Predator.

But how do you make it interesting? How does a film about such a clash capture the audience’s curiosity and still deliver the goods, especially with a budget of only $23 million?

With budgets for blockbusters like the Matrix sequels and Lord of the Rings well north of $100 million, a film working with less than that has to be imaginative about putting things on the screen. This level of imagination began in a conversation about werewolf films between two fans of the genre, director Len Wiseman and his friend Kevin Grevioux, who is a co-writer and plays the role of Raze in the film. “If it’s the new werewolf film of the millennium, I want to see something different,” says Wiseman.

Scribe turned vampire Kevin Grevioux.

Grevioux, who has a background in genetic engineering, chose to use science rather than mysticism as a basis for the monsters’ existence: “I created a virus, which was the reason that vampires and werewolves became what they had finally become. I think that if you take it down to a genetic state then you can really explain things. If it’s about a genetic anomaly that creates these species or you’re just dealing with a blood type that through the years has somehow been able to develop these species, then you can find ways to kill it. You can explore why silver affects this type of blood. Our vampires and werewolves are a little more grounded.”

The process of creating the picture was greatly facilitated by Wiseman’s knowledge of exactly what he wanted and his ability to communicate that vision. Producer Gary Lucchesi explains: “Len is a very eloquent guy. He comes from the world of production design, which I found rather interesting. He had apprenticed with Roland Emmerich and had worked at ILM. He was very committed to the atmosphere of the movie and felt that in a movie like Underworld, atmosphere was going to be a top priority in achieving what he wanted on screen.”