Universal Monsters Movies Ranked
7. The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)
Following an expedition to re-capture the escaped Gill-man, the creature is horribly burned and following surgery sheds its outer layer of skin and gills, becoming more human. Scientists attempt to integrate him into society, but a combination of human brutality and the Gill-man’s longing for his former life under water keeps true understanding between the terrestrial and aquatic humanoids out of reach.
The last of the original run of Universal horrors is easily one of the most interesting of their sequels and proof that the studio and the talent they hired weren’t completely out of ideas even by the mid-1950s.
It’s a melancholy and reflective affair with one of the studio’s banner monsters metaphorically castrated by man and turned into something more pathetic than fear-inspiring, essentially wanting to kill itself by returning to the environment it can no longer survive in.
6. House of Dracula (1945)
Dr Franz Endelmann (Onslow Stevens) conducts experiments with the blood of three monsters: Count Dracula (John Carradine), the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr) and Frankenstein’s Monster (Glenn Strange). In doing so, he sets into motion a violent and unpredictable chain of events that will change his very nature.
The best of the so-called monster rally team-ups by quite some distance, House of Dracula really has no right being this good when it arrived so close to the end of this lucrative horror cycle.
Erle C Kenton’s third Universal monster movie amps up and remixes everything that almost worked in the previous year’s House of Frankenstein while ditching everything that didn’t work.
None of the other monster sequels introduced a secondary antagonist as memorable as they did here with Dr Endelmann, and it makes you wonder why blood transfusions aren’t used more often as a plot device in vampire movies.
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5. The Wolf Man (1941)
Laurence Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr) returns to his family home in Wales for a funeral, but an encounter with a Romani fortune teller (Bela Lugosi) and an attack by an unusual wolf leaves him cursed with transforming into a werewolf every night “the wolfbane blooms and the Autumn moon is bright”.
Much like how Nosferatu solidified the rules for movie vampires, the majority of werewolf mythology comes not from folklore or literature but from an inventive script by Curt Siodmak. It’s a compelling invented mythology, with men becoming monsters against their will being ideal as a metaphor for wartime national trauma.
Lon Chaney Jr is second only to Boris Karloff in the sympathetic monster race, his Laurence Talbot being stricken by a terrible curse that presents like an addiction. We see him carry the weight of the world on his shoulders.
It’s little wonder that Lon Chaney Jr was the only actor to portray the Wolf Man; he was able to develop and deepen Larry’s tragic arc over multiple films in a highly emotive manner.
4. The Mummy (1932)
Archaeologists unseal an Egyptian tomb and accidentally awaken the ancient mummy Imhotep (Boris Karloff), who takes a human form in order to perform a ritual sacrifice to resurrect his love.
None of the Universal monster movies can claim to be truly scary to a modern audience, but thanks to high quality production design, measured pacing, and controlled performances, The Mummy is still creepy. Filmed in a surprisingly modern style, and with an eerie and still Karloff at its centre, it still holds up extremely well.
Groundbreaking cinematographer Karl Freund (Metropolis, Dracula) is at the helm of this one, so it’s no surprise that it contains some of the most striking imagery of the entire series. Even so, it took a lot longer for the Mummy to become as big of a horror icon as Dracula or Frankenstein, with the big budget remakes of the late 1990s cementing the icon in the public’s imagination.
How dare you put Dracula so far down. We shall have to fight this out in the SecondCutPod podcasts.