Later "Universal Horrors"--consensus?

[Bruce Banner]

Love the whole monster cycle from Universal... both the early classics and the later sequels.
Big fan of the Kharis Mummy movies and the later Frankenstein installments, too.
Always thought it would have been great if Universal could have added The Mummy to the "House" pictures in some way. I heard they thought about doing it, but ultimately abandoned the idea.


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[PNGwynne]

I have to admit I forgot about Creature--it's pretty awesome for a King Kong remake ;-)

The Black Cat is convoluted but I don't consider it a mess. Its style & thematic content certainly puts it well above, for example, The Raven or The Invisible Ray IMO.

I do really enjoy Ygor, but I can compartmentalize him in Son...

Regarding Carradine's Dracula, I sometimes fantasize about him having the lead in Son of Dracula.

And I'm a stalwart fan of all things Phantom, but Claude Raines sure isn't Chaney, Sr. I read that Raines' scarring was toned-down for war-time sensabilities.

[Goblin19]

They're all fun on some level. The last ones had tpo many miscasts, such as John Carradine and Chaney as Dracula. For me, I compare them to the lesser Abbott and Costello movies. They're so steeped in nostalgia for me that I enjoy them for what they are, while still acknowledging that some are just okay.

[madmarva]

Son of Dracula isn't that bad either, although Chaney's miscast. It's better than Frankenstein meets Wolfman to me, because the latter really breaks down once the Frankenstein plotline is introduced. It's almost like two different movies.

Universal missed out by not making another Wolfman solo film in my opinion.

The two House films have their charms (particularly Karloff in HoF) but they really are a mess, a fun mess, but still a mess.

Lugosi as Ygor makes Ghost of Frankenstein worth watching. As iconic as he is as Dracula, I favor his work as Ygor in Son and Ghost.

To me Bride is on another level with Frankenstein steps behind it but well ahead the other Universal films, including the Invisible Man, which Whale also directed.

Val Lewton accomplished so much more than his contemporaries at Universal in the 40s, possibly with an even smaller budget. Universal banked on popular characters and its horror "stars," while Lewton attempted maximize his opportunities by squeezing everything out of his budget to make a suspense or horror film that would appeal on a more sophisticated level than the Universal films of the same period.

I dearly love those Universal films of the 40s for what they meant to me as a kid, but Lewton made better films.

[Werewolf]

The Wolfman and Creature from the Black Lagoon are fantastic.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I think all of the post-Karloff Mummy films are of the "B" variety. Great fun, but they reused a lot of footage, the plots had huge holes, etc.

The Wolf Man was Universal's last great horror flick of that classic era. It was an "A" effort, I feel. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is an A- effort. It even trumps the original in some of the eerie Wolf Man sequences, but continues the Frankenstein series downward spiral into endless brain transplants. The fact that Lugosi's lines as Ygor/Monster were cut shows Universal was starting to churn out these flicks like sausage. Great tasting sausage, but it's not steak!!!

Oddly enough, I recently watched "The Black Cat" and was somewhat underwhelmed. I felt Lugosi and Karloff were fantastic, but the plot was a mess. I understand it's perverse, with Satanism, incest, necrophelia, etc, but I think it was a bit thrown together. I'd heard how great it was for years, and felt it was a bit overhyped.

Chris

[PNGwynne]

What do fans here think of later ('40s) Universal Horror films?

While I can enjoy The Mummy's Hand and The Wolf-Man for their slick production and good story-telling, later entries just seem tired to me, with lesser casting. Of course, A&C Meet Frankenstein is a wonderful, fun Valentine to the series.

I mean, I would rather re-watch most any Val Lewton film of the same period than a Universal re-hash. In my opinion, nothing tops the Whale films or the sinister, perverse, over-designed The Black Cat.

Maybe WWII gutted the series? Although, I think the Hammer films ran out of steam, too.