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I know that, when it hits theaters, James Wan's Creature from the Black Lagoon reboot will be listed as a monster movie. And yet, when Deadline announced it August 11, I couldn't help but see the hallmarks of a different horror subgenre. Unfinished business, lost love, ideas that wouldn't die - at the moment, reader, the film has all the tenets of a ghost story. Dive with me, won't you, into the story of James Wan... and The Trench.

In 2015, The Hollywood Reporter announced that James Wan would direct the DCEU's Aquaman. An interesting choice, considering that Wan's work was typically (and very successfully!) in horror - having been a primary mover in the Saw and Conjuring franchises. After Aquaman was released as a box office banger, THR was back to announce Wan was developing not a sequel, but a spinoff, one that would bring him back to his horror roots. The spinoff was said to focus on the film's villains, not its heroes, and thus was the DCEU's Trench movie born.

In case you don't know, the titular Trench are a mutant race of undersea dwellers introduced in the New 52 era of DC Comics. They are descended from Atlanteans but, in their appearance, are distinctly more fish than Arthur Curry and his human-passing ilk. Due to a geographic relocation, The Trencg have adapted to live in the harshest of ocean climates, relying on their fierce physiology, brutal social practices, and even cannibalism to survive. Take a look at the creatures below.

Now, I can't find Trench creator Geoff Johns ever citing The Creature from the Black Lagoon as inspiration for this villains, but it's impossible for a horror fan not to look at the Ivan Reis drawing above and think of ol' Gillman. James Wan, I'd be willing to bet a great deal of money, likely had the thought himself as he was treading the waters of early film development. Unfortunately, that was as deep as The Trench would ever get.

In 2021, amidst a tumultuous shift in vision for DC movies, Warner Bros. plucked The Trench out of its fishbowl, leaving it flopping and dying in front of saddened spooky sea nerds like yours truly. The cancellation hit extra hard later, when it was revealed the "hero" of The Trench would be none other than Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's Black Manta. But even the excitement around this reveal came too late; DC studios was already restructuring and James Wan's undersea horror vision was dead. Until... it wasn't. 

(This isn't the only James Wan DC horror story. In 2019, James Wan produced the live-action Swamp Thing, a gothic horror tale snuffed out before reaching its full potential, also starring a green-suited, water-loving mutant. The show was cancelled just days after its premiere on the short-lived DC Universe streaming platform.)

While we're likely to never see a Trench movie, for better or worse, ghostly sightings of its unlived life have been confirmed all over DC's projects since. In 2023, Wan told IGN that elements of Black Manta's story had made it into Aquaman's proper sequel, The Lost Kingdom. And most recently, a fishperson in the form of Dr. Nina Mazursky will appear in DC's upcoming Creature Commandos, which was developed in part by James Wan's Trench creative partner, Peter Safran.

Like I said, these are just sightings - flitting visions and sensed presences of an idea robbed of its life. But like any good ghost story, a full apparition is coming, bubbling its way to the surface for an act-three reveal that sends screams through the audience.  

I’ll be in that audience, watching as Universal’s Creature makes a new generation of moviegoers afraid of the water. And just like James Wan, I imagine, I’ll know that while most of that fear comes from the Black Lagoon, there will be a little of The Trench in there too. 

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." We couldn't agree more, which is why we think you should check out horror aficionado Greg Silber's list of the best horror movies of all time. Or, if you've already seen those classics, check out our list of the most underrated horror movies from the past couple years. And if you've already seen all of those, Let us tell you what to look forward to (or dread) in Popverse's list of upcoming horror movies.