TheUniversal Monstersinitially arrived in 1931 with the introduction ofDraculaandFrankenstein.Thisled to several iconic movie monstersthat have stood the test of time, from the Wolf Man and Invisible Man to The Mummy and many more. However, whileseveral Universal Monster moviesremain beloved classics, others remain overlooked.
There were several sequels to the main movies. WhileBride of Frankensteinremains known as a movie even better than the original, other sequels have largely been forgotten, despite their deep dives into the monsters' mythology. Therewere also Universal Monsters introducedthat don’t have the same impact as the top-line creatures.
Most horror movies were influenced by German Expressionist films from the silent era, withNosferatu(1922) andThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari(1919) as early masterpieces. This led to Hollywood trying its hand at the form, andone of the earliest Universal Monster movies was released in 1923with the silent filmThe Hunchback of Notre Dame.
The film made Chaney a star, and his masterful makeup work helped earn him the nickname “The Man of a Thousand Faces.”
Lon Chaney Sr. starred in the film, which was also one of Hollywood’s first epic spectacles. While there are no supernatural elements to the film, it still presents the first great American horror icon, as Chaney stars as Quasimodo, the bellringer of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
Based on the Victor Hugo novel from 1831, the archbishop’s evil brother, Jehan (Brandon Hurst), forces Quasimodo to do his bidding, which eventually makes people believe the unfortunate man is evil. The film made Chaney a star, and his masterful makeup work helped earn him the nickname “The Man of a Thousand Faces.”
After proving himself a star under makeup inThe Hunchback of Notre Dame,Lon Chaney was back two years later in another Universal Monster role. While Quasimodo was not a villain, his next role was a truly evil monster asChaney played The Phantom inThe Phantom of the Operain 1925.
There have been 11 adaptations of the serial by Gaston Leroux, and this silent version from 1925 remains the best of them all. The story follows a musical genius named Erik Destler, a man who lives in the Paris Opera House and is dangerously obsessed with a beautiful singer named Christine Daaé.
This movie closely follows the novel’s plot, and while all violence is implied, it occurs off-screen. Although it isn’t spoken of as much as in other Universal Monster movies, it was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1998.
Everyone knows about the first Universal Monster movie of the sound era. However, while Bela Lugosi was the first Dracula,a second Spanish-language Dracula movie was being shot at the exact same time, using the same sets, but with a different director and cast. It was also better in most ways than the better-known Dracula.
In this Spanish-language movie, Carlos Villarias starred as Dracula. While he was not as iconic as Bela Lugosi in the American language version, everything else about this film was better. The Spanish-language movie followed the script more closely than Lugosi’s movie, and it had better production design and special effects.
The Library of Congress added the Spanish-languageDraculato the National Film Registry in 2015. However, few mainstream horror fans are even aware of the movie’s existence, and it deserves a much larger audience.
When asked, many people might mistakenly believe thatThe Wolf Man,released in 1941,is the first Universal Monsters werewolf movie. However, this is not accurate, as Lon Chaney Jr.’s film was the second werewolf movie from the studio. Released six years earlier,Werewolf of Londonactually holds that distinction.
This was the first feature-length werewolf movie made by any studio, starring Henry Hull as Wilfred Glendon, a wealthy English botanist who was bitten by a feral creature while in Tibet, acquiring a rare plant that is nourished by the moon. It turns out the plant is a temporary antidote for a werewolf, which is important as he starts to change.
While the movie is not as well-known asThe Wolf Man,it was highly influential and served as the direct inspiration forJohn Landis’An American Werewolf in London.
Frankensteinis a true Universal Horror classic, andBride of Frankensteinis even better than the first movie. However, few people mention the other sequels in that franchise, which are often overlooked thanks to the lesser-qualityDraculasequels. However,Son of Frankensteinis an exception and is a quality follow-upto the monster series.
Released in 1939, this was the first Universal Horror movie released after a major turnover at the studio, which initially led to the phasing out of horror movies until the studio realized the money they were losing as a result. The best thing is that Boris Karloff returned as the Monster, and Basil Rathbone signed on to play the son of Baron Frankenstein.
Thismovie also features Bela Lugosi in the cast,but this time as a supporting character, Ygor. When he and the monster return, Frankenstein’s son must figure out how to deal with his family’s legacy. The movie proved that the Universal Monsters still deserved a spot in theaters.
The Invisible Man Returnsisthe first sequel toThe Invisible Man,theUniversal Horror movie that holds the record for the most killsof any release. It arrived seven years after the first movie, and this film does not have the same villain from the first movie, but a different Invisible Man, this time played by Vincent Price.
That fact alone makes this a film worth seeking out, as this was a very early career role for Price, who went on to become one of the most beloved horror actors of the 1950s and 1960s. He plays a man facing a death sentence for murdering his brother and connects with Jack Griffin’s (Claude Rains) younger brother to get the invisibility formula.
The special effects in the movie earned an Oscar nomination for Best Special Effects, and the film was a great story, with Geoffrey Radcliffe understanding the risk he was taking and risking losing his grip on his sanity while invisible, and asked to be killed if this happened. It made for a more sympathetic monster than the villain in the first movie.
The Mummy’s Handis the first sequel to the originalThe Mummy(which had Boris Karloff as The Mummy). Unlike theDraculaandFrankensteinsequels,The Mummy’s Handis not a direct continuationof the first movie in this franchise. Instead, this is a reimagining of the monster.
What really makes this movie stand out is that it was one of the last Universal Monster movies to blend equal parts comedy and thrills, so no one felt the need to take it too seriously. When an archaeologist finds a vase and brings it to the museum director, the man breaks it on purpose because his job is to protect Princess Ananka’s tomb from infidels.
However, when the archaeologist ignores the warnings and finds the tomb, it isn’t Ananka he finds. Instead, he releases the Mummy, Kharis (with Tom Tyler replacing Boris Karloff in this movie). The film was praised for its balance of humor and scares, while the sequel attempted a straight horror approach, resulting in a drop in quality.
Arriving three years afterSon of Frankenstein,the Monster was back for another movie. This film draws from one of the mostcontroversial moments from the originalFrankensteinmovie. In that movie, the Monster befriends a little girl, and thinking he is playing as she was, he accidentally kills her, which puts a target on his head.
InGhost of Frankenstein,Bela Lugosi is back as Ygor (surviving his apparent death in the last movie) while Lon Chaney Jr. replaces Boris Karloff as The Monster. This film also presents a second son for Baron Frankenstein, a psychologist and brain surgeon operating a sanitarium. Ygor asks him for help.
Baron Frankenstein’s ghost visits his son and reveals that replacing the Monster’s brain could make him harmless. However, Ygor sabotages the operation and has his brain put into the Monster, wanting revenge on the world. The idea of a scientist playing God is on full display here, and it proves theFrankensteinsequels were mostly all quality entertainment.
The Universal Monster movies began to fall out of favor after World War II, when the audience sought more realistic horror, and these monsters no longer seemed as frightening. However, at the same time as horror was changing,a new comedy team arrived, and the mash-up movies were giant successes.
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello had several filmswhere they faced off with the Universal Monsters, but the best of the best was the first movie. In 1948, Abbott and Costello met the original Universal Monsters, but it was better than that. Bela Lugosi was back as Dracula, Lon Chaney as the Wolf Man, while Glenn Strange played the Monster.
The film was a masterwork because Abbott and Costello had all the jokes, but the Universal Monsters played their roles completely seriously. The serious horror scares combined with slapstick humor for what might be the best horror comedy of the Golden Age.
The Creature from the Black Lagoonhad the unfortunate status of coming out after Universal Horror Monsters had gone out of style. It enjoyed some success upon release, thanks to its sci-fi genre, and took advantage of the 3D craze of the time. However,Gill Man is nowhere near as famousas the previous Universal Monsters.
As the last great monster created by theUniversal Monsters' studio machine, this film deserves its status as a genuine horror masterpiece. The creature was based on the legend of fish people living on the Amazon River, and unlike many movie monsters, Gill Man was not a villain, but was a sympathetic monster hunted by people who feared him.
