Long before Jigsaw and Annabelle, Ghostface and Samaragoing back to even before Freddy and Jasonthere were theUniversal Monsters.
But which are the best and which are best left to molder in their cobwebbed crypts?
If more people knew about it, it might be a midnight madness classic.
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That heros real name is Frank Griffin (Jon Hall), the grandson of the original Invisible Man.
It all sounds more exciting than it is, but every bit as uncomfortable to the modern eye.
Worst of all, though, is that its surprisingly boring.
A few gags early on work, but before the credits rolled, it was already a museum piece.
The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)
Theres an interesting metaphor to the third and final Creature movie.
Otherwise,Walks Among Usdevolves into a staid domestic drama about an unhappy marriage and non-amphibious home wreckers.
The movie also has the novelty of featuring Clint Eastwood in one of his earliest roles.
The cult intends to punish a couple of all-American fortune seekers for grave-robbing.
Nonetheless, character actors Dick Foran and Wallace Ford provide good buddy-comedy chemistry as the hapless heroes.
Its not exactly progressiveand a third act involving bumbling gangsters overstays its welcomebut its harmless enough fun.
The Mummys Tomb (1942)
IsThe Mummys Tomba good movie?
Is it a fun movie?
This is where the list starts becoming at least a campy pleasure.
Yes, Dr. Edlemann (Onslow Stevens) is nice!
The film that finally got made is essentially a remake of PricesThe Invisible Man Returns.
Unfortunately, Arthur Franz is below adequate as the final Invisible Man here.
Luckily, the movie doesnt need him to work.
Instead its got jokes, with the comedy duo bouncing off a non-existent third banana.
High-brow, this is not, but we laughed.
Its the blending of 40s formulas and a particularly cruel final scene that makesSona strange but memorable gumbo recipe.
Its an important movie in LGBTQ film history, but a frustrating one.
In spite of that, the main character is Dr. Niemann (Boris Karloff).
In one of his earliest film roles, Price plays Geoffrey Radcliffe, a man wrongfully accused of murder.
Also the love triangle between Fosters Christine and two suitors played by Nelson Eddy and Edgar Barrier falls flat.
Melford films those scenes with more urgency, and his vampire attacks have a stronger suggestion of carnal menace.
Empires have started from less.
Whats surprising about watching the film today is discovering how well it works, at least as aWolf Mansequel.
Alas, all they find is Frankensteins Monster played at his most incoherent by Bela Lugosi.
Also look out for a young Martha Vickers as one of the werewolfs victims.
A dark and stormy night never looked so evocative in a Universal movie than right here.
Johann also gets to vanquish the Mummy herself… with a little help from the goddess Isis.
Even the Hungarian actors halting English adds to the eerie effect.
And those early scenes set in Transylvania are a masterclass in art direction and production design.
While those effects are a lot quainter to the modern eye, they havent totally lost their charm.
Poor Larry Talbot is estranged from his lordly father (Claude Rains) and their Welsh ancestral home.
Only a year beforeCasablanca, Rains brings reserved gravitas as the judgmental but ultimately grief-stricken father.
Finally, Jack Pierces makeup design for the Wolf Man (which uses Yak hair!)
is still a treasure, even if we look at it today more with affection than shivers.
(That line was cut by censors in the 1937 rerelease).
Still, its heart remains with the Monster, brought to fragile life by Boris Karloff.
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
James Whale did not want to doThe Bride of Frankenstein.
The result is a film that is as much a subversive comedy as it is a straight-ahead horror movie.
Theres humor here, but also a wistful determination to celebrate the Other in a less tolerant age.
The scene of the Monster learning to speak while having dinner with a blind hermit (O.P.
Heggie) plays without a trace of irony and achieves a grace even Mel Brooks couldnt fully undermine.
This is Whales masterpiece and remains one of the best sequels ever made nearly a hundred years later.
