Universal Monsters

I have an odd relationship with the movie genre known as horror. I really don't care for it, and I'm not really a fan of scary movies. I like suspenseful movies, and everyone knows I adore Hitchcock, but they are not the same thing. However, there are some films that are horror movies that I like a lot. I like older horror movies, ones where it's not about franchises, or gore, or blood, or creepy people. But onces where there are monsters, weird goings on, and—are you ready for this—a storyline. I love William Castle's horror movies because they are so wonderfully out there. I love campy American International horror movies for their goofiness. But I don't care for slasher films, or any of the current crop of horror hits. But I liked the 2nd Evil Dead film, as it made me laugh really loud.

Modern horror fans, regardless if you want to admit it or not, every single movie you've seen in a theater, at home, or on cable, owes it's existence to one set of movies from the 1930s and 1940s. Universal Studios, more or less, created the horror film genre. It was their trademark as much as MGM's was their musicals, and Warner Brothers' their gangster films. I love the Universal Monster movies. Why? The biggest answer is this: They're damned entertaining. They look great, are fun, have story lines, and everyone has fantastic clothes on.

I deeply hate that it wasn't till I hit my late twenties when I started watching the classic Universal Monster movies. The first time I saw The Bride of Frankenstein my reaction was not that I thought it was a great horror movie, I just thought it was a great movie period. One of the truly great American movies, so much so that it's quickly becoming one of my top ten favorites. I was overjoyed with delight at Christmas, that one of my gifts was Universal's recent “Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection” Blu-Ray box set. A magnificent eight disc collection of every Universal monster movie any  film lover would ever want to own.

The box set includes: Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Phantom of the Opera, and Creature From the Black Lagoon. All mastered in full 1080p from original elements, and when you see just how beautiful these films look on Blu-Ray, it's an astonishing result (Lest we forget that the first generation negatives to most of these films do not exist anymore). If that's not enough, one of the coolest extras in the set, is the 3D version of  Creature From The Black Lagoon, for those of you with 3D capable TVs and Blu-Ray players.

The box set doesn't stop there when it comes to bonus features, each disc is loaded. Every film has at least one audio commentary, some of them have two. A making of feature, features on the stars, the studio, the directors, the make up men, and then some. It's a cinema buff's dream. Though it's not in this set, around the same time the studio also released on blu-ray Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein. Which is worth owning because it's Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein.

Though it is doubtful that these films no longer have the power to shock and scare that they once had, that still doesn't knock them down one bit. There is obviously more going on here than simple “shock tactics” like you see in so many horror movies today, why else would these films have endured some 70 years? Though today it's all about making 900 versions of the same movie, I sincerely believe that future film generations will still be talking about these movies far more than they will any of those pointless Saw movies (That's right, I said it, don't care if you're upset by it).

These films are an essential part of the history of the American movie industry, they are the very backbone of Universal studios, it's often been suggested that these films saved the studio from bankruptcy more than once. You owe it to yourself to add this one to your collection, unless all you can think about at night is the next Paranormal Whoop-De-Doo movie. Then you, my friend, have problems I can not fix.