Streaming users wage war with the opener to a monotonous money-spinning saga that never got any better

Much like Paul W.S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich’s Resident Evil franchise, Underworld proved to be remarkably popular across a number of installments, despite the fact the high concept hybrid of action, fantasy, and horror was never exactly greeted with open arms by anyone outside of its dedicated fanbase.

Len Wiseman’s 2003 opener remains the best-reviewed of the five chapters to date, but even then, it could only rustle up a Rotten Tomatoes score of 31 percent. However, based on the fact every film in the series with the exception of Blood Wars landed an audience average of between 62 and 79 percent, it‘s clear that the war between vampires and Lycans had plenty of supporters.

Then again, such popularity with the target demographic hardly reaped huge rewards at the box office, either, given that only two Underworld flicks netted at least $100 million at the box office. As a whole, the supernatural saga is a mystery wrapped in an enigma that was capable of being trashed, praised, bombing, succeeding, thrilling, and inducing tedium all at once.

20 years on from debuting, it’s the very first entry in the monotonous journey that’s been sinking its fangs into the streaming charts, with FlixPatrol revealing Kate Beckinsale’s maiden outing as leather-clad death dealer Selene to be the fourth most-watched feature among Paramount Plus subscribers in the United States.

There’s a groundswell of support behind a revival or reboot, but just as many hoping Underworld stays dead, making it one of the many money-spinning properties nobody will ever be able to agree on.