Jurassic World forgot what made Spielberg's film a classic, but it could bring it back with Scarlett Johansson's new sequel

THE Jurassic World the films have lost touch with the horror elements that made Steven Spielberg's original so good, but the next Jurassic World Rebirth can finally bring back terror. Spielberg's first Jurassic Park the film probably should have been left as a standalone piece. It wrapped up the story and resolved the themes perfectly, so there was nowhere for it to go in a franchise. But the sequels keep making money, so Universal keeps releasing them. Now, the studio is working on a new reboot to distance the franchise from the disappointment of Jurassic World Dominion.

Despite being produced on an absurdly accelerated schedule to have a release date of July 2, 2025, Jurassic World Rebirth is shaping up to be a return to form for the franchise. The original film's screenwriter, David Koepp, is back to write the script, Rogue OneGareth Edwards is in the director's chair, and the cast is rounded out by great actors like Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali. To really succeed, though, Jurassic World Rebirth will have to bring back a key element from Spielberg's original film that the previous one Jurassic World films forgot.

Jurassic World revival could bring horror back to Jurassic Park

The original Jurassic Park was a genuinely scary movie

Original by Spielberg Jurassic Park is the perfect blockbuster film - it's fun for the whole family, tells a timeless story, and is filled with big laughs and bigger action sequences - but it's also a genuinely scary film. It creates a chilling sense of dread when the T. rex escapes its enclosuredraws viewers to the edge of their seats when the velociraptors chase Tim into the kitchen, and delivers an effective scare with the reveal of the severed arm. Spielberg did Jurassic Park as scary as possible whilst also being suitable for audiences of all ages.

The same cannot be said for most of the sequels. Jurassic Park III has a really scary sequence when the characters are shrouded in high-altitude fog and terrorized by a swarm of pterodactyls. But for the most part, it's a Indiana Jones-action-adventure style where the stakes never seem particularly high. There are many factors in the box office success of Jurassic Park - to begin with, it innovated with its mind-blowing visual effects - but the visceral fear it provoked was one of the main reasons to watch it in a packed theater, and the franchise that followed didn't maintain that.

Jurassic World became so big that the movies weren't scary anymore

The high-stakes spectacle undermined ground-level terror

THE Jurassic the original film's disappointing lack of horror elements in the franchise is on full display in the Jurassic World films. As the trilogy progressed and the stakes rose ever higher (eventually becoming global), the widespread spectacle ended up undermining ground-level terror. The first Jurassic World the film had a great horror sequence with the Indominus rex killing security guards in the jungle, and Fallen Kingdom turns into a haunted house movie in its second half. But in the third film, when the dinosaurs escaped to the mainland, these horror elements disappeared.

Domain It's another global James Bond action epic than a sci-fi horror film. It's more focused on delivering big set pieces, like a motorcycle chase or a plane crash, than a good scare. And as a result, the danger seems completely slight. When the characters are being chased by a T. rex, an overturned car – once a death trap in the original film – suddenly becomes a safe haven in which to hide. There is never a reason to fear for the charactersbecause there is never any reason to believe that they are genuinely at risk.

Jurassic World Rebirth must find the balance between fun and horror

It can't just be a straight horror film - it still needs Spielberg's sense of fun

As good as it was for Jurassic World Rebirth to bring back the horror elements of the original film, it can't just be a straight horror film. You have to find the right balance between horror and good old Spielbergian fun. That was the magic of the original film; Spielberg would terrify audiences with a foreboding T. rex emerging from its paddock and stalking its prey, then ease the tension with the joke of a lawyer being eaten in a bathroom. Renaissance You have to find a way to get that back.

Edwards has already proven he can handle it balancing act. From him Godzilla The remake creates a disturbing sense of the titular monster's scale, but also doesn't forget to have fun with the kaiju concept. Rogue One It has all the bankroll action of a typical Star Wars film, but there's also Darth Vader's hair-raising climactic hallway massacre. There is no doubt that he can do the same trick in Jurassic World Rebirth.