Film

Underworld

Name: Underworld
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Thriller
Released: 2003
Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Michael Sheen, Shane Brolly, Bill Nighy

Other titles called Underworld: the 1927 film.

Underworld drapes werewolf-versus-vampire war in black leather and blue-tinted gothic gloom, treating ancient monster mythology like a modern action franchise. Kate Beckinsale's Selene glides through rain-soaked corridors dispatching Lycans with guns and swords, while a forbidden romance complicates centuries of bloodshed. It's stylish, moody, gleefully self-serious pulp — closer to a superhero origin story than a horror film, built for fans of sleek violence and gothic atmosphere over scares.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love gothic, rain-slicked action built on a moody, gunmetal palette, where leather-clad heroines and centuries-old feuds matter more than strict logic, a bit like the Blade films.

Skip it if you want a light, funny night out or a story that stops to explain its mythology, since it mostly runs on atmosphere, crossbow-and-pistol fights, and a lot of stylised brooding.

What it asks of you: Around two hours at a steady, mostly nocturnal pace, with long stretches of dim sets and quiet menace broken by bursts of violent action you will need to stay with.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Blade1998

Wesley Snipes' vampire hunter invented this whole aesthetic first—leather trench coats, pounding techno raves, gothic blood magic—years before Underworld borrowed the look wholesale and dialled the mythology up.

But The CGI is dated and the tone tips into camp more often than Underworld's straight-faced gloom ever does.

Resident Evil2002

Milla Jovovich's leather-clad antiheroine mows through monsters with the same relentless, stylish momentum as Selene, if you want more corporate-conspiracy paranoia mixed into your action.

But Zombies and viral outbreaks replace the vampire-werewolf mythology entirely, so the gothic lore you came for is gone.

Van Helsing2004

Hugh Jackman battles Dracula, werewolves, and Frankenstein's monster all at once in one gloriously overstuffed gothic monster mashup that plays like Underworld's louder, campier, more ridiculous cousin.

But It's messier and far sillier, chasing spectacle over the moody restraint Underworld tries so hard to hold onto.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Underworld

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

West Side Story1961

Same bones as Underworld: two ancient warring factions, a secret romance between members of opposing sides that threatens to detonate everything—just sung and danced instead of shot and stabbed.

The Romeo-and-Juliet structure Underworld borrows gets its most iconic expression here—two warring clans, a forbidden romance, electric choreography and Bernstein's score elevating the whole tragedy.

But It's a full-blown musical, and the mid-century gang politics can feel dated or uncomfortable to modern eyes.

Twilight2008

The same vampire-versus-werewolf forbidden romance at the centre of Underworld gets replayed here, just swapped from bullets and swordplay for teenage yearning and moonlit forest walks.

But The tone is romantic melodrama rather than action, the pace is gentler, and the stakes feel much smaller.

Constantine2005

Keanu Reeves wades through demons, angels, and washed-out supernatural noir with the same trench-coat gloom and heavy reliance on invented mythology that Underworld runs on.

But It swaps vampires and werewolves for angels and demons entirely, so the specific factions you loved here don't appear.

Ultraviolet2006

Milla Jovovich returns as a vampiric supersoldier battling a fascist human government, delivering that same leather-and-guns aesthetic cranked up to a genuinely absurd, gloriously silly degree.

But It's widely considered a misfire—thin plot, incoherent action, and style with almost nothing underneath it.

Priest2011

Paul Bettany hunts vampires across a bleak, future wasteland with that same brooding antihero posture and heavily stylised, slow-motion violence that Underworld built its whole identity around.

But The sci-fi western trappings feel a long way from Underworld's damp gothic European alleyways and old-world atmosphere.

The Wolfman2010

Benicio del Toro's tragic transformation leans into practical effects and old-fashioned gothic dread, giving you a bloodier, more classical monster movie than Underworld's slick modern warfare.

But It's a horror tragedy rather than an action thriller, so expect creeping dread instead of adrenaline and gunfights.

Bram Stoker's Dracula1992

Coppola's lush, operatic vampire romance shows exactly where Underworld's gothic sensuality actually comes from—decadent, doomed, and visually intoxicating from its very first frame onward.

But It's a florid period romance with none of the modern action choreography or leather-clad gunplay you just watched.

The Wolf Man1941

This black-and-white Universal classic essentially invented the werewolf mythology Underworld spends two hours modernising—the curse, the silver bullet, the doomed man inside the beast.

Lon Chaney Jr.'s tortured, haunted performance turns the werewolf into a figure of genuine pathos and grief, not just an obstacle for a vampire warrior to dispatch.

But The pace is slow, the effects primitive by any modern measure, and there's none of Underworld's gunplay or spectacle.

Penny Dreadful2014

Same gothic monster ecosystem—vampires, werewolves, ancient secret societies—stretched into a slow-burn television series that takes the mythology as seriously as literature rather than an action playground.

It weaves Dracula, Frankenstein, and Dorian Gray into one gorgeously shot, deeply brooding Victorian world that treats gothic monster mythology with real psychological weight and patience.

But It's slow and dialogue-heavy, closer to literary prestige drama than the guns-and-leather spectacle you just spent two hours watching.