Psychobabble’s 31 Favorite Universal Horrors: #24

Halloween season simply isn’t Halloween season without a regular dose of classic Universal horror (1923-1963). Every day this October, I’ll be giving you a steady IV drip of it by counting down Psychobabble’s 31 Favorite Universal Horrors!

#24. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923- dir. Wallace Worsley)

I’ve always had trouble viewing The Hunchback of Notre Dame as a horror movie, because the implication is that Quasimodo—a disabled man whom almost everyone treats like complete shit—is a monster. The true monsters of the picture are the so-called “normal” people who whip and mock him. Fuck those assholes. There is great satisfaction in witnessing Quasimodo’s revenge, as there is in witnessing the tenderness between he and Esmeralda, Lon Chaney’s sensitive performance as the title character, director Wallace Worsley’s lush and epic images, and Joe Bonomo’s incredible acrobatics as Chaney’s stunt-performing stand in.

Psychobabble’s 31 Favorite Universal Horrors: #25

Halloween season simply isn’t Halloween season without a regular dose of classic Universal horror (1923-1963). Every day this October, I’ll be giving you a steady IV drip of it by counting down Psychobabble’s 31 Favorite Universal Horrors!

#25. House of Dracula (1945- dir. Erle C. Kenton)

Not nearly as much fun as Erle C. Kenton’s previous monster-rally house, House of Dracula does improve on its Frankensteinian predecessor in some ways. The film’s three monster’s are better integrated (though there still seems to be an unwillingness to find much for the Frankenstein Monster to do) since Dracula is not dispatched before the other creeps even appear this time. John Carradine continues to make an interesting and elegant vampire, and the mad scientist plot to cure vampirism is pretty original. Plus, you just can’t go wrong any time Universal’s three main monsters share the screen.

Psychobabble’s 31 Favorite Universal Horrors: #26

Halloween season simply isn’t Halloween season without a regular dose of classic Universal horror (1923-1963). Every day this October, I’ll be giving you a steady IV drip of it by counting down Psychobabble’s 31 Favorite Universal Horrors!

#26. Murders in the Zoo (1933- dir. A. Edward Sutherland)

Possibly the film that allowed Lionel Atwill to make the most of his real life perviness, Murders in the Zoo is far stronger than its silly title implies. Atwill is a grabby creep who sews up the lips of the dude who’s been cuckholding him, spends a lot of time graphically groping his wife (Kathleen Burke of Island of Lost Souls), and sics zoo animals on everyone who crosses him. It’s nasty, pre-code stuff, but Charles Ruggles’s comic relief bullshit may be the most truly horrifying thing in this grotesque zoo.

Diary of the Dead 2018: Week 1

I’m logging my Monster Movie Month © viewing with ultra-mini reviews at the end of every week this October. I write it. You read it. No one needs to get hurt.

October 1

Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972- dir. Lucio Fulci) ****

Well, we’re off to a good start with a refreshing surprise. I’ve never been a fan of Lucio Fulci’s gory nonsense, so I wasn’t expecting to find anything appealing about one of his most famous flicks. Yet there is a quite a bit about the charmingly titled Don’t Torture a Duckling that is appealing, such as a central mystery—specifically, who’s murdering the kids in a little Italian village?— with a gaggle of suspects. This little village has the highest population of weirdos this side of Twin Peaks. There’s an accused witch, a hermit who practices black magic (and cut a police interrogation short because he has to “take a crap”), and Barbara Bouchet as a drugged up pedophile. Fulci keeps the excessive gore to a minimum, allowing it to shine in one scene that is genuinely disturbing and one that is unintentionally hilarious. I saw the culprit coming from a mile away, but the twist will be a neat one for those who aren’t programmed to look for that kind of thing.

The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962- dir. Riccardo Freda) ***

Psychobabble’s 31 Favorite Universal Horrors: #27

Halloween season simply isn’t Halloween season without a regular dose of classic Universal horror (1923-1963). Every day this October, I’ll be giving you a steady IV drip of it by counting down Psychobabble’s 31 Favorite Universal Horrors!

#27. Dracula’s Daughter (1936- dir. Lambert Hillyer)

Dracula’s Daughter marks the first time a female monster was allowed to dominate a Universal horror (poor Elsa Lanchester only got a few minutes of screen time the previous year). Of course, this was 1936, so don’t dive in expecting a progressive spin on its themes as the film equates vampirism with bisexuality and the deeply conflicted monster behaves more like prey than predator, implying that a female monster is inherently a weak one. Blah. Nevertheless, Gloria Holden remains wonderfully spooky and haunted in the title role, especially during her late-night funeral for her dad in the woods. It’s a shame that James Whale did not get to make the outrageous movie called Dracula’s Daughter he’d been plotting. Ultimately, Hillyer’s flick is thin gruel compared to the hearty stew than Whale and screenwriter R.C. Sherriff had been cooking up.

Psychobabble’s 31 Favorite Universal Horrors: #28

Halloween season simply isn’t Halloween season without a regular dose of classic Universal horror (1923-1963). Every day this October, I’ll be giving you a steady IV drip of it by counting down Psychobabble’s 31 Favorite Universal Horrors!

#28. The Mole People (1956- dir. Virgil W.Vogel)

Do not underrate the power of camp value. The Mole People has it in clawfuls. There’s an asinine prologue delivered by a “scientist” whose grasp on real science is almost as pathetic as our president’s. There’s Ward Cleaver as an archaeologist, an Egyptian cult that got their wardrobe at the supply shop for Santa’s helpers, and  the rubber-masked mutant mole people themselves, who probably rate as Universal’s most memorable post-Gill Man monsters if only by default.

Psychobabble’s 31 Favorite Universal Horrors: #29

Halloween season simply isn’t Halloween season without a regular dose of classic Universal horror (1923-1963). Every day this October, I’ll be giving you a steady IV drip of it by counting down Psychobabble’s 31 Favorite Universal Horrors!

#29. The Creature Walks Among Us (1956- dir. John Sherwood)

The third and final installment of the Gill Man saga is slow going, but it pivots on a truly intriguing and original premise: burns from a fire reveal that beneath all those scales, old Gilly is actually pretty human, and he undergoes surgery to make him more so. The thing is, he definitely preferred his monstrous state, and when he starts breathing with lungs, he starts longing for the sea. His forlorn visits to the shore are genuinely poignant.

Review: 'Frankenstein Alive, Alive!: The Complete Collection'

In 2012, writer Steve Niles (30 Days of Night; Batman: Gotham County Line) and artist Bernie Wrightson (Swamp Thing) began publishing a four-issue sequel to Wrightson’s 1983 comic adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. While the new story was somewhat slight, and gave the resurrected monster little to do besides ponder his newfound humanity and commit one decisive, redemptive act, Wrightson’s artwork is absolutely extraordinary. The level of detail is remarkable—you could spend hours exploring a mad doctor’s roomful of freakish curios—while the black and white work recalled both E.C. Comics’ and Universal Horror’s best. The monster, himself, was an original creation without Jack Pierce’s trademark flattop and “bolts,” representing the more human-like creature Shelley described while still delivering something truly monstrous looking.

That is where the monstrousness of Niles’s creature ends. He is thoroughly benign in the Frankenstein Alive, Alive! series, leaving the most monstrous deeds to a Dr. Ingles (an clear homage to “Ghastly” Graham Ingles, E.C.’s greatest renderer of oozing grue and a major influence on Wrightson). Dr. Ingles’s warped attempts to restore life to his dying wife provide the true horror of Frankenstein Alive, Alive! and infuse the plot with its meatiest moments. However, the real star of this sideshow—as Niles acknowledges in his introduction to a IDW’s new hardcover collection of all four issues—is Wrightson.

Sadly, the artist died of brain cancer before he was able to complete the fourth and final installment of Frankenstein Alive, Alive!, so at his personal request, Kelley Jones (Swamp Thing; Batman) was brought on to finish the final issue with illustrations based on Wrightson’s sketches. As we can see from those sketches included as valuable bonus pages in Frankenstein Alive, Alive!: The Complete Collection, Wrightson’s fine detailing was still in full force for the final chapter, though Jones curiously mutes those details despite the relative faithfulness of his reproductions of Wrightson’s sketches. Some artists truly are irreplaceable.

Psychobabble’s 31 Favorite Universal Horrors: #30

Halloween season simply isn’t Halloween season without a regular dose of classic Universal horror (1923-1963). Every day this October, I’ll be giving you a steady IV drip of it by counting down Psychobabble’s 31 Favorite Universal Horrors!

#30. The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942- dir. Erle C. Kenton)

By far the weakest of the Frankenstein movies, The Ghost of Frankenstein still has a bit going for it, the most notable thing being more time with Bela Lugosi in his best role: Ygor. The rest of the cast is strong too with appearances by such monster mainstays as Lon Chaney, Jr. (admittedly, not a great monster), Lionel Atwill, Evelyn Ankers, and Ralph Bellamy. We also see the first hob-nailed boot step in the Monster’s journey toward morphing into cuddly Herman Munster as he helps some kid get her ball down from a roof. Sure, he kills a couple of goofballs while doing it, but no one ever said redemption happens overnight.

Psychobabble’s 31 Favorite Universal Horrors: #31

Halloween season simply isn’t Halloween season without a regular dose of classic Universal horror (1923-1963). Every day this October, I’ll be giving you a steady IV drip of it by counting down Psychobabble’s 31 Favorite Universal Horrors!

#31. Werewolf of London (1935- dir. Stuart Walker)

Universal’s first attempt at a werewolf picture is sort of a failed test. The mythology is goofy (the prime defense against werewolfism: flowers), the pace is as draggy as the Mummy’s left foot, and Henry Hull is irritating as the petulant botanist who gets a nasty dose of lycanthropy. Still, there is something truly creepy about Jack Pierce’s makeup job because we see the humanity of the creature better than we would when Pierce later loaded Lon Chaney Jr’s face with fur (though the Chaney make up is superior). Bonus points for this flick’s firstiness and the presence of the always delightful Valerie Hobson.