Creature from the Black Lagoon

#14 in my ranking of the Classic Universal Monster movies. Finally, a new monster. The Universal Monster franchise had gotten to the point where the serious thrills of the early films had been replaced by outright and intentional comedy. There was room in the market for more straight horror, but the Frankenstein monster just wasn't…

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Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man

#18 in my ranking of the Classic Universal Monster movies. Building off of the surprise financial success of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein as well as the comedic stinger at the end of it, Universal took a script for a straight sequel in the Invisible Man series and inserted the Abbott and Costello personalities into…

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

#8 in my ranking of the Classic Universal Monster movies. The Universal Monster franchise was dead. Long live the Universal Monster franchise! After having worn the core three creatures as thin as possible through a series of decreasingly interesting matchup movies that seemed to try to take the monsters seriously while just covering the same…

She-Wolf of London

#29 in my ranking of the Classic Universal Monster movies. It's hard to talk about this movie without completely spoiling its twist because all of its faults center around that twist. It's not the twist itself that is the problem, it's that in order for the dramatic impact of the twist to be felt it…

House of Dracula

#25 in my ranking of the Classic Universal Monster movies. The appeal of House of Frankenstein was one part casting and another part happy accident. Boris Karloff simply made the film, and the subplot about the hunchback Daniels' unrequited love was solid. House of Dracula has neither of those things. Oh, it still has a…